Human Tutor
by lastwriterofdreams
Summary: A few days after Peridot's ship crashed into the Beach and her disappearance on Earth, the Gems decide that finding her is their top priority. However, a man shows up to the beach house claiming that he wants to be Steven's Tutor. Who is this man? Why does he look dangerous? And just what exactly does he want to teach Steven. Read, find out, Review.
1. Chapter 1

# SU: Human Tutor #  
It has been a few weeks since the Jasper incident. The gems have put away the majority of the remains of Peridot's ship in an undisclosed gem location, not all of it was though, but they decided to say it was destroyed in the atmosphere. Unbeknownst to them, they were all going to have someone unexpected enter their lives.

Steven was texting Connie about what he was doing at home, mainly just eating or re-reading the no home boys as he was still grounded from watching TV. He and Pearl were home alone as Garnet and Amethyst were looking for Peridot. Pearl was left with Steven in case anything bad happened to him, now that there was a loose homeworld gem on earth, none of the crystal gems were to be alone.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Pearl stood up and from the top half of the door saw a man in what resembled SWAT uniform, only it looked like it had more electronic devices built into it. On hos shoulders were two compartments that were short, but were as long as his shoulders. His torso piece held several belts holding knives, bandoliers with several ammo clips, a pad with several buttons on it, holsters, hand sized pockets, and a longsword on his back. Anything below his chest she couldn't see. He had long black hair similar to Steven's dad, a brown eyes, smooth tanned skin, but what struck out most was he had a black and blue eyepatch. Pearl decided not to open the door, as the man didn't exactly look like he was going to be to selling cookies. "Can I help you?" Pearl asked cautiously.  
"I am here to see Steven Universe, is he home?" The man said, he sounded so convincing, not a single ounce of threat was in his voice. Pearl,was examining the man, he looked like he was in his mid twenties. This, however, didn't change Pearl's intuition of the situation.  
"He's not home at the moment" Pearl lied, "and I don't think he should see you." She said with a tone that said she was standing her ground. "Now leave." She asserted. The man kept looking at Pearl.

"Well, I'm not leaving, I asked you for the truth and you lied." he said. "Look, I am here to do a job, it's in the best interest of Steven that I talk to him."  
Steven was listening in on the situation a few feet away. The man saw him, Pearl noticed his pupils move and knew he saw Steven. She began to tense up and got in a defensive stance.  
"And why would that be?" she asked, keeping to her position.  
"I am here to be his human mentor, I was paid by someone in Beach City to be a human guardian for Steven and am here to do that. The person who hired me was worried that he might grow a biased opinion in favor of the gems. As you do Pearl." He said without moving an inch. This began to make Pearl a little nervous, first of all, this man is dressed like a killer and says he is going to teach Steven. Second, she didn't feel that this heavily armed man would teach anything to Steven. Third, he made a good point, Steven knew more about Gem culture than human culture. But what bothered her most was the biased comment and the fact that she knew his name.  
"What are you talking about? I protect humans on a daily basis you-you-" she stuttered, so the man cut her off.  
"Yes, you do, but what do you know about humans, your notions of humans are only based on cavemen who only had sticks, stones, and fire as technology." Pearl was shocked, he knew about her opinions of humans. "You think that all human beings are weak, and require your protection. But trust me, humans are very capable." He said, his tone only rising slightly.  
"I-I" she stuttered again, Steven was now worried about what might happen, "It doesn't matter, as a Crystal Gem it is my duty to protect this planet from threats off world." She said. "And we are more than capable doing that and teaching Steven ourselves." She said with confidence. She lost that confidence when she saw the man smile.  
"I don't doubt your skill, but I am saying that humans are not as weak as you make them out to be, how about a wager," this made Pearl draw her weapon. "if I can beat you in a fight, then you let me to talk to Steven. If you beat me, I'll never come back." This made Pearl more confident as she knew that her skills were far superior than whatever human skills existed. "So what do you say Pearl?" He smirked, as if already knowing her answer. Pearl spinned her spear and pointed it at him to show off her skill.  
"Human male! I accept your challenge and assure you that I will be victorious." She said.  
"Good." he said before pulling out a device with a button on it and pressing it. Pearl heard fast and loud beeping before the realization dawned on her.  
"Steven, take cover!" yelled Pearl. Steven flinched at her yell.  
"Huh?" he said. The man yelled at Steven.  
"Do it!" So Steven, as fast as he could, took covered behind the kitchen counter, just then, the front door exploded. The man stepped back, but the impact pushed Pearl back and some splinters from the wood landed on her, she was still standing, however, and charged at the man with her spear forward, the man locked his elbows over the guard rail, pushed up and as Pearl approached, he kicked her on the chin. He kept going back was free falling to the ground, Pearl recovered and in anger and disbelief jumped at the man with the intention of stabbing him in a non vital, but painful area. The man, however, pulled a whip out from his hip, whipped it up, catching Pearl's leg. Pearl He gasped, then the man used both arms to fling the whip downward toward the ground, forcing Pearl to land harshly before him. As the man was still falling, he pulled the sword from his back with his right hamd and reached into a pocket and threw smoke pellets down at Pearl with his left. Pearl grunted as she forced herself up, as she got up she saw 3 black balls fall around her and went up in smoke on impact around her. However she saw the man coming down on her with his sword drawn. She held her spear out vertically and blocked his attack as he came down. His sword was double edged, with part of one side being serrated. Pearl did a split to lower herself and her opponent with the force of his attack, she spun her leg toward his and swiped him off his man, rolled back and as he stood up, Pearl ran at him put her spear on the ground, put her weight on it and pushed forward and kicked the man backward several feet onto one of the the support beams of the deck. She stopped for a moment to take a breath as the man was still standing, she charged her spear and sent a bolt of energy toward him, the looked down and saw Steven's skateboard, stepped on the edge of it and it jumped up just in time to take the bolt of Pearl's attack for him. The man threw a knife from one of his belts at Pearl, she blasted it with another bolt, the man soon started running at Pearl, his free hand pressed a combination of buttons on his chest. Suddenly, the compartments on his right shoulder opened to reveal 3 holes, all of which shot out small missiles at Pearl. The man kept running at the same speed as the missiles toward Pearl, whilst spinning his sword back and forth between his hands. Pearl knew she had to get rid of the missiles first, so she fired three consecutive bolts at each of the missiles, she was about to charge her spear for another blast, but the man was already in close quarters with his sword coming from the side, she blocked it and was about to counter with her own attack when she realized the man had a jambiya knife close to her throat. Pearl was clearly, surprised by this, and was visibly sweating. The man smirked at her.

"But how?" Pearl asked, obviously angry at the fact that she lost. "Gem fighting skills are supposed to be superior than human ones," she was visibly angry now. The man sighed, sheathed his sword and knife, and began walking toward the house. "Stop!" Pearl yelled as she made her spear disappear. "I still insist that you stay away from Steven." she demanded more than insisting.

"No. I beat you fair and square, now I will talk to Steven, as was our wager." He said with a tone that refused no for an answer. He then stopped and his eyebrow shot up as if he remembered something. "Silly me, I forgot my cluent wanted to give you something." From one of the compartments of his torso, he opened it and pulled out a pearly white rose and handed it to her. "My client insisted i give this to you specifically." Pearl was speechless, she looked at the rose, with confusion, and her cheeks blushed their sky blue color. "Well, now that that's done," he turned toward the house, "I will now speak to Steven." he began to walk, "you might wanna be there, it might interest you what i came here to tell him." he said, and with that, Pearl walked behind him toward the house.


	2. Chapter 2

_"I will now speak to Steven." he began to walk, "you might wanna be there, it might interest you what i came here to tell him." he said, and with that, Pearl walked behind him toward the house._

Steven was still behind the kitchen counter. He wondered whether or not the fighting had stopped. He hoped that Pearl would win, he knew she would, she was probably the most responsible and tactical gem in the group, no way some random guy was going to beat her. He then realized that he was still hiding.  
"What am I doing? I have to help Pearl." And with that he stood up and began to make his way to the destroyed front door. He exited out into the deck and saw the man running toward Pearl, he was about to run toward them when he got close to Pearl. They both stopped, and he saw that both were now talking. He then saw the man give Pearl a flower. This made Steven frown. Usually a man gave girl the flower, not fight her before that. Maybe he lost and decided to give her something for beating him. Steven decided.

Steven began to walk down the stairs. As he made his way further down he stopped as they both saw him. Pearl immediately ran toward Steven and put her arms around him.  
"Oh Steven, are you ok? Did the explosion hit you?" Pearl began to talk fast, as she does when she's nervous.  
"I'm fine Pearl." He confirmed. "At,least you beat him, right? hehe" He chuckled nervously. Pearl flinched and looked away. "Right Pearl? You beat him..." Steven's chuckle slowly stopped.  
"Actually, no, he won." Pearl admitted while looking at the man. She then stood up to face him."But I only held back because I know my powers and I swore to protect all life on earth." Pearl said as if making a point and trying not to let Steven think that the gems were vulnerable.  
"Keep telling yourself that princess," he walked past her and made his way to Steven. "I won without using a fraction of my skill or weapons." He bent down to get on Steven's eye-level.  
"I take it you're Mr Universe." He held out his hand for Steven to shake. Steven just looked at his hand and was hesitant on shaking it.  
"Uh- Actually, Mr. Universe is my dad. I'm just Steven Universe." Steven said. He was about shake the hand, but the man got impatient and took it back.  
"My apologies, Steven." The man said.  
"Do you know why I'm here?" he asked Steven.

Steven looked at Pearl for a second, and she nodded at him with a small smile, telling Steven it was returned his attention to the man "Uhm, you came to ask Pearl on a date after beating her?" Steven asked innocently. The mans face scrunched to a look of incredulity. "What?! No! What kind of way of asking a girl out is that?" He then stopped and put his hand on his chin as if giving it a thought. "Then again... It would be lead to a very interesting date if she said yes." He said aloud, he then snapped back to the task at hand. "Anyway, I'm not here for that. That Rose I gave her was from my client." He said.  
"And just who is this client of yours?" Pearl asked as it did concern her. The man turned to her to answer her.  
"My client has asked to remain anonymous. But he has confirmed to meet you when the time's right." He turned to Steven before Pearl asked any other question.  
"Steven, what do you know about human culture?" He asked him.  
"Hmm" Steven pondered. "Well... I have a lot of cool books written by humans, their food is super good, aaand they need the Crystal Gems when the town's in trouble." Steven smiled at the last comment, proud of being a Crystal Gem himself. This however made the man frown slightly.  
"Really, is that so?"  
"Yup." confirmed Steven.  
"Are you proud of being human?" The man asked.  
"I...uhm" Steven began to think, what was he proud about his humanity, he hardly knew about his human heritage compared to the Gems. "I guess not much. But I do have friends who are humans and I know they make money, have jobs, go to school, and care about each other." He smiled at the thought of all the people in Beach City.  
"Really?" The man said. He paused for a second. He turned toward Pearl with a frown. "It appears that I am needed here." Pearl was shocked and nervous. The man got closer to her as if he was about to angrily shout at her. "You are responsible for taking care of Steven. He is half human and you're only teaching him about Gem culture, he doesn't know anything important about humans." The man's voice was bordering on emotional anger, but professionally maintaining his composure. Pearl was feeling a little guilty, but noticed something in his minor rant.  
"Wait, how did you know Steven is half human?" She said. Pearl expected to have him stutter or pause because she thought he knew something he shouldn't and decided to pick on that.  
"I know just as much as you do." He said, almost as if what he said was true. "My client informed me a lot of you gems." He looked at Pearl with a look that dared her to continue the subject. "But we're getting out of topic." He turned back to Steven. "Steven, I am here to teach you about your humanity, especially human history. I am hired to do exactly that. But I need to know that you want to. " He said. He was waiting for Steven to answer him.  
Steven was considering about his offer.

He knew about his lack of human history, and the outside world. But he didn't feel safe with this man. In fact, not at all, he beat up Pearl, and destroyed the doorway. Steven wanted to learn more about his human side, but not from this man. Steven clenched his fist.  
"No. You beat up Pearl. You damaged our house." He pointed at where the door used to be. The man looked up too, and chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head.  
"I mean yeah, but-" He was about to continue when Steven stopped him.  
"Stop, I don't need you to teach me. You are mean and you're dangerous. Get off our property." Steven said as his final word. The mans face went to one of disappointment, and a failure for himself. He sighed.  
"Well, I guess I didn't get through to you, did I?" He gave Steven an apologetic look. "Look I'm going to be in town for a few days, so just let me know if you change your mind." He turned around, and began walking away from the beach.  
Steven and Pearl were both relieved that he decided not to put up a fight.  
As they saw him leave, Pearl turned to Steven.

"That was very brave of you Steven, and I know its hard for you to label others as mean." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Thanks." She smiled at him, and he did the same. "Now, lets fix that door before Amethyst and Garnet sho-" Before Pearl finished her sentence, they saw a light emit from the house. They saw Garnet, with Amethyst following close behind, walk out into the deck and turn to them. She looked at the doorway, then jumped high and landed in front of them, before saying.

"Explain."


	3. Chapter 3

_Garnet looked at the doorway, then jumped high and landed in front of them, before saying._  
_"Explain."_

Pearl was worried this would happen. She was worried that Garnet would get upset, but she was more worried about Amethyst's reaction.  
"Whoa! What happened here guys." She laughed at how the blown up the doorway was. "It's all 'pisheew'" Amethyst tried imitating the sound of an explosion. She approached the rest of the group, then took a good look at Pearl. She had splinters on some parts of her body, scratches on others, and there was a bruise on her chin. Pearl looked away from Amethyst, as if waiting to be bombarded with ridicule.  
"Yeesh, you ok Pearl?" asked Amethyst asked genuinely.  
Pearl looked back at Amethyst.

"I'm fine, thanks." Pearl smiled at her, and Amethyst did the same.  
"A-hem" Garnet got the attention of the others. "You still haven't told me what happened here." she insisted. Steven perked up.  
"Garnet! I'm so glad you're here." Steven went to hug her leg. "Me and Pearl were minding our own business, when suddenly, some guy came." Steven explained.  
"Some guy?" Garnet asked. Pearl decided to step in.

"A human came to talk to Steven, he wanted to talk to Steven about his human heritage, but he looked like a dangerous man." Pearl said. "He had multiple kinds of weaponry on him, he was missing an eye, and he gave me a rose." Pearl said as she pulled out the rose. Amethyst burst out laughing in the background at the thought. "Although he said it was from someone who hired him." Pearl finished.  
"But how did you get hurt?" asked Garnet. At this point Amethyst calmed her laughter down.  
"Oh-um" Pearl wondered how to explain to Garnet about the wager. "Funny thing actually, he-"  
"Pearl didn't want him to talk to me because he had swords and stuff. So the guy made a bet that if he beat her he would get to talk to me." Steven informed Garnet. The fusion gem turned toward Pearl.

"Did you accept it?" she asked. Pearl grunted toward Steven comically, and he mouthed 'sorry' while blushing.  
"Yes, I accepted. He really wanted to talk to Steven and" she sighed "I lost."  
"Whoa. How?" Amethyst chipped in. Pearl looked at her.  
"He was very skilled in combat, he used a few tricks and dirty tactics to win, he blew up the door as one of his distractions." Pearl explained. Garnet looked stoic as usual, she then approached Steven, and bent down to his eye-level.  
"Steven, what did he tell you?" She asked him. Steven looked at Garnet and told her.  
"He wants to teach me about humans, he thinks that I don't know enough about them, he's also worried that I might like you guys more than the people in town." He told her. Garnet pondered.

"Do you?" she asked. Steven was caught off guard at her question.  
"I...I love you guys, but I also love the people of Beach city. Like dad, Connie the Pizzas, and the Lars and Sadie, everyone." Steven proclaimed.  
"Interesting." said Garnet. "Is that what you told him?" Amethyst stepped in to ask. Steven turned to her.  
"Yes...well not exactly, he wanted to teach me more about people, but I told him I didn't want him to teach me, and told him to leave. He gave off a bad vibe, y'know?" Steven paused. "I want to learn more about humans, if it's ok with you guys?" Steven giggled.  
"Oh Steven. I don't think you'd be able to handle the education level of the human system, you're 13 years old, by now you should be in secondary school. Either way we won't be able to afford it." Pearl said.

"Oh" Steven said disappointed. "Then I'll ask dad, he knows about people." He said excitedly. Pearl almost lost her composure, Amethyst spoke up "Actually Steven, Greg might not be the best person to go to." She said. "Plus, why do you need to learn stuff when you got" she transformed into muscular, taller Steven and flexed. "MAGIC." She said dramatically. This cheered up Steven and made him laugh a little bit.

"Guys, c'mon. I'm serious, I really want to know more about humans." He turned to Garnet. "You guys know something about them right?" He turned to Garnet. Amethyst turned back to her original form and had a worried look on her face along with Pearl.  
"How about we worry about it later?" Garnet said calmly. "Right now, we have a doorway to fix." With that she began walking toward the house. Steven was left stunned, he was about to complain when Garnet spoke up. "We'll figure something out don't worry Steven. This made Steven smile.  
"Wahoo!" he expressed happily, "Thanks Garnet, I'll go get dad, he should have tools for the door." Steven said, dropped the subject then and there and began to walk toward the car wash. The gems were now looking at each other.

"Garnet, you really think he should know about human history? It could change him so much." Pearl informed her concern to her.  
"I don't, but I think it won't matter, he'll learn about them eventually. Let's just be quiet about for a few days, we still have Peridot to look for." Garnet remembered something. "Pearl, did the man say he would come back?" Garnet asked out of concern.  
"Actually, he said he would be in town for a few days, but he didn't say he was going to approach Steven, it sounded as if he wanted us to find him if we needed." Pearl informed her.  
Garnet looked toward the city.  
"Lets hope we don't have to." Garnet said.

The next day.

Lars and Sadie were opening the Big Donut, this morning wasn't warm, but it was cool enough to be calm and serene. Lars obviously complaining the whole time.  
"I swear sometimes this job isn't worth the morning hassle." Lars whined as he rubbed his eyes. Sadie however was having none of it.  
"Well maybe you should balance your sleep time, with your video game time." Lars playfully shoved Sadie with his shoulder.  
"I can't help myself, I was leveling up too much, I'm L33t now." He exaggerated his 'achievement.'  
"You're gonna get F1r3d if you keep this up. Seriously just sleep more often." She punched his forearm just as jokingly.  
"Fine, but I'm not giving up on my game, just so you know." he said. They both chuckled.

They got into their cashier positions. A few minutes later, a man in casual clothing walked in the store. He wore blue jean shorts, and an undershirt that showed his lean, yet muscular arms. Upon closer inspection, Sadie saw he had a smooth goatee that connected to his sideburns. But what stood out the most was his eyepatch.  
"Pfft, check out captain black-goatee over here." He whispered to Sadie. Sadie couldn't help but blush as she looked at the man.  
"Uh-huh." she sighed dreamily. Lars looked at her reaction and he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Sadie caught herself and tried to hide it. Though for who, she wasn't sure.

"Hello sir. What would you like?" asked Sadie nicely.  
"Good morning. Do you guys happen to have any soup?" he asked politely.  
"The name of the store speaks for itself, sir." Lars said with sarcasm.  
"Actually, we have other things on the menu Lars. We have some microwave ramen noodles in the back." Sadie reminded him.  
"But no one ever buys those." Lars said as he pointed his thumb to the back of the store.  
"Then let me be the first to buy some." he insisted while smiling. Lars was unsure at first but went to the back anyway to prepare it. Sadie typed in a few numbers on the cash register before a receipt came out of it.  
"You're total will be $2.75." she told man reached into his pocket to pull out a $5 bill before handing it to Sadie.  
"There you are. Keep the change." He smiled, Sadie thanked him for his tip. Lars walked in carrying a bowl on a platter of hot noodles with a silver spoon and fork.  
"Here's your order sir, be careful its really hot." Lars said boringly. The man took the platter, looked at the silverware and asked.  
"You wouldn't happen to have any chopsticks, would you?" Lars sighed.  
"No sir we do not." he said.  
"Oh well thank you anyway." he thanked Lars. He soon took a seat on a table close to the wall near the cashier.

A few moments later, there was ching sound by the door and a man walked with a ski mask, in his left hand he had a duffle bag and in his right a pistol. Lars and Sadie saw him and were going to make a run to the back of the store. The masked man aimed his pistol at them quickly, they stopped immediately.  
"Don't move."


	4. Chapter 4

_The masked man aimed his pistol at them quickly, they stopped immediately._  
_"Don't move."_

The masked man approached the cashier with his pistol aimed on Lars and Sadie's direction.  
"Just cooperate with me and no one gets hurt. Put all the money in the bag." The masked man said. Sadie nervously began pressing numbers on the cash register. Lars stayed where he was sweating out of anxiety.  
"Hurry up, girlie, I don't have all day." The masked man shook his arm in Sadie's direction as threat that he will shoot. Sadie was on the verge of tears by the time the register opened.

"Listen buddy, I don't think you know how this works." The man spoke up. The robber turned to look at the man.  
"Usually you give them money and in return you eat things that rob of your health." The man said nonchalantly.  
"What did you say?" The robber asked sarcastically as he approached the man with his pistol pointed at him. "Care to repeat that?" The robber held the gun close to the man's face. The man looked at him without interest and continued eating his noodles.  
"No." He said with as if ignoring the barrel if the gun to his temple. The robber began to get a bad vibe from the man, and underneath his mask frowned. The man, then made a sudden movement with his head, this made the robber flinch, but he did not fire his gun. The man turned his head back to Lars and Sadie's direction. "Do you guys happen to have any hot sauce? That'd go great with my noodles." He said politely.  
"What?!" Lars asked incredulously. This man had a gun to his head and all he was concrned about was *noodles.*  
"Don't you dare ignore me!" The robber spoke out loud. "Don't you guys play stupid here. I will shoot this man." He turned to Sadie, whilst still keeping his pistol pointed at the man. "I thought I told you to put the money in the bag?!" He yelled at Sadie.  
The man took the opportunity of robber's distraction and quickly used the smooth end of his spoon to push the robber's wrist, with his hand holding the pistol upward. He managed to push his arm upwards, and with his free hand hit the robber repeatedly on his ribcage. The robber let go of his pistol and the man punched him in the face, and caused the robber to fall to the floor and the man leaned down to hold both his arms behind his back. "Let go of me!" The robber struggled to get free.  
"Why did you rob the store?" The man asked in a tone of authority.  
"What?!" The masked robber was confused, but frustrated at his failed attempt of robbing the Big Donut.  
"Why did you do it?" The man asked again. His voice, somehow, managed to sound like he had patience, but could lose it any second. "Why did you try to rob this store?" He asked calmly.  
"I don't have to answer to you, you ain't a cop!" The robber said as if he had the ultimate excuse. "I don't have to tell you anything." He said as if the situation were final. The man looked at him, and gathered his thoughts about what he was going to do next. With one hand, he held the robber's hands against his lower back, and with his free one, grabbed the fork from the table he had previously sat on. He looked down at the robber before speaking, in a calm manner.  
"You're right." He started, the robber confused at his first choice of words. "I,am not a police officer." He paused. "So I'm not entitled to ensure your safety if you're helpless." His tone became more menacing. "I just stopped your whole operation with a spoon." He tightened his grip on his forearms, the robber grunted in pain. The man moved his hand that had the fork to the robber's face, so he could see it. "What do you think I can do with a fork?" He asked darkly, his voice full of the intent of causing pain. The realization dawned in the robber eyes, and the fear hit him like a ton of bricks. He began to panic, sweating even. "Now why did you try to rob the store?" The man asked one final time.

The robber forgot about his petty need to not tell the truth, as he knew for a fact that this was his last chance to avoid getting hurt.  
"I did it because I knew this place had no security, I knew neither of them would be able to stop me, and I knew they a good amount of cash!" The robber yelled as quickly as he could.  
"That's it?" The man asked angrily. "You were willing to put their lives in danger for-" He stopped to think. He turned to Lars and Sadie, who he thought would have made a run for it, but it's good that they were still here. "How much do you guys have in the cash register?" He asked, almost embarrassed of not knowing the answer himself. Sadie, who was closest to it, and had it opened already, counted.  
"About forty bucks..." she said nervously. The man quickly whipped his head back down towards the robber.  
"-forty bucks?!" He screeched. "Are you serious?" He yelled down at him.  
The robber was terrified of the man above him and his eyes began to water out of fear of what might.  
"I wasn't planning on using it, the gun was empty!" He confessed frantically.  
The man, Lars, and Sadie were all shocked for a moment. "I was just going to use it to scare them." The robber began to whimper. The man looked to where the gun fell, then signaled Lars to pick up the pistol with his head twitching toward the weapon. Lars hurried towards the pistol, checked its barrel and modded to the man to confirm it was empty.

Sadie, who was quiet and scared until now, became burning red with anger, she walked past the counter and made her way towards the man and the robber, stomping the whole way.  
"You stupid," she began. "idiotic," the robber's pupils dilated. "greedy," the robber began to squirm. "low-life," The man shoved the terrified one's face the the ground.  
"You got yourself into this, now you gotta take a woman's scorn." The man said, a little nervous himself at Sadie, Lars was also afraid of this side of her.  
Sadie finally reached them.  
"Coward!" She yelled as she proceeded to kick the robber on the ribs, legs, and step on his elbow. "You jerk, how could you do that?!" Sadie seethed. The robber was grunting and screaming in pain. Lars was immediately next to Sadie and was, trying, to hold her back.  
"No, let go of me, Lars!" she tried to break free, but Lars held onto her.  
"Its ok Sadie, it's over, it's over. You got him, we won." Lars said while holding her close to him. Sadie was breathing heavily, she stopped beating the man, but was still angry at him. Sadie calmed down after a bit. Lars called the police to pick up the robber and they did so a few minutes later. The officers thanked them for their civil duty and took the robber, who was begging them to take him away from 'those crazy people.' Lars, Sadie and the man were still inside the Big Donut.

"Thanks a lot sir, I don't know what would've happened if it weren't for you." Sadie said, back to her cheery self. "You know, besides being robbed by a guy with no ammo." She noted. Lars shrugged as if nothing happened, putting on his 'tough guy' attitude. Sadie elbowed his hip. He frowned at her before turning to the man "Yeah, thanks." He said, not wanting to admit he wanted or needed help. Sadie looked at him with a look thats said 'And?'. Lars sighed, dropping his act.  
"Is there anything we can do to help?" He asked, with genuine sincerity. The man smiled, walked toward the table with his ramen noodles, sat down and said.  
"Two things; One." He began. "I'd like that hot sauce with my noodles, please." He held up two fingers. "And two: I'd like to your word that you will give a free donut to your next customer." He said. Lars and Sadie were both confused at the last request. But they didn't ask any questions.


	5. Chapter 5

_"Thanks Garnet, I'll go get dad, he should have the tools for fixing the door." - Steven._

Steven woke up the next morning after helping his dad with the door. Greg told the Crystal Gems he would be able to fix the door on his own. The gems left it to him, leaving only Steven to help him that night, it took them two hours before they finished fixing it, with minor holes, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some duct tape. This time, it had an entirely closed door, so the bug net wasn't there anymore to let wind the wind go in.

Steven asked his dad to stay the night over, Greg agreed, and slept on the couch, Steven slept in his own bed. The whole night Steven was debating with himself whether or not he should tell his dad about how the doorway blew up in the first place. Greg did ask the question several times when they were fixing the doorway, but Steven managed to avoid the question by changing the subject. To which Greg obliged Steven to tell him when he wanted, as long as it wasn't too serious.  
Steven was glad that he woke up first, he wanted to be able to get his dad a breakfast donut for helping fix the doorway. He got up from his bed, put his street clothes on, and walked down the stairs to where his dad was sleeping on the couch. Steven could carefully hear his dad saying something.  
"Let...me(snore)...my van...(snore)...heart." Greg sang in his sleep. Steven couldn't help but smile at him. Steven then walked out the newly built doorway and made his way to the Big Donut.

On his way there, Steven began to wonder more and more about the man that destroyed their door. He remembered that the man said he would be in town for a few days, but where, Steven didn't know because the man didn't say. Steven hoped he didn't come across him on his way to get breakfast for his dad. His mind then drifted of to Peridot. Where was she exactly? What was she up to? What was she capable of? Was it a coincidence that after the Jasper incident the man shows up to teach him about people? All these questions floated aroundin his head. He decided not to think too much about it, as he neared the store.

As he entered the door, Steven saw Onion being given a donut by Sadie. A smile came up to Steven's mouth as he saw Sadie pat Onion on the head. This made Steven wonder, were Lars and Sadie giving away free donuts?  
Onion nodded his head to Sadie, kind of like thanking her without using any vocabulary, no one knew if he was capable of it. He then ran out the store, waving at Steven as he passed by him.  
Steven made way for Onion so he could go through the door.  
"Bye Onion." Steven waved back. He made his way to the counter. "Good morning guys, two chocolate frosted donuts, please." He asked politely.  
"Looks like you could've only paid for one if you got here on time Steven. We were giving away one free donut today." Sadie informed as she put both treats in a bag.  
"What?!" Steven exclaimed. "I could've gotten a free donut if I came here earlier?!" Steven exaggerated. "Is that why Onion got a free one?" He asked forgetting about his surprise.  
"'Fraid so." Sadie then smiled.  
"Well as long as Onion's is happy." He reached into his pocket for the money to pay for the breakfast donut. "By the way, why were you giving away a donut? Was it some kind of promotion for you guys?" Steven asked curiously.

Sadie was about to explain the earlier events, when Lars, seemingly out of nowhere, appeared to interrupt her.  
"Nope, our boss doesn't even give us raises. BUT. We almost got robbed this morning." Lars said, excited to tell Steven the events of this morning.  
"What?! Are you guys ok?" Steven asked with genuine concern for both of them. "Did you guys get hurt?" Steven looked like he was going to tear at the mere thought of it. Sadie elbowed Lars, for scaring Steven like that.  
"No Steven, look we're fine. See." Sadie walked past the counter to show him she was alright. "Fortunately, a man was here to stop the robber." She smiled sweetly at Steven to show she was ok. Steven stopped worrying, and smiled back at her. He proceeded to hug her just because he felt like it.  
"Pfft, I could've told it better." Lars mumbled. Steven turned to Lars, and hugged him too. Lars blushed a bit, and felt a bit awkward. Steven then let go of him and looked up at him.  
"I'm glad you guys are ok." Steven said. Lars smiled for a brief second before shaking it off.  
"Ok, ok, that's enough Steven. Thanks for worrying." He said a bit awkwardly.  
"So how did it go? Who stopped the robbery?" Steven asked the question differently to let Lars tell it like he wanted. Although many saw Steven as an innocent and naive boy, he was also great at reading, not many knew that he was very calculating about how he dealt with people, not even Steven was aware of it. To him, reading people and making them feel better was first nature to him.

After Lars explained the story to Steven, with much enthusiasm, Steven was in awe at the end. Especially how the man wanted their next customer to have a free donut. Steven left the Big Donut with a smile and breakfast. He wondered if the man that Lars told him about in the story was the same one that attacked Pearl yesterday. The description of his clothes was different, but the eye patch was more than a dead giveaway. If so, then the man was closer than Steven had expected. He began to quicken his pace back to the beach house. He thought about it a little more, then he remembered his dad was at the house. Probably still asleep. Steven began to walk up the stairs, he gave the idea of telling his dad about the man one more thought.,Steven decided that he would tell him. As he finished his thoughts on the topic, Steven reached the (new) doorway. He was about to reach for the lock when he heard voices from the inside.

"What do you mean a man with weapons was looking for Steven?!" Steven heard his dad's voice from the inside.  
"It means what it means Greg." Pearl's voice said.  
"Look, this is exactly why we were hesitant to telling you." Now it was Garnet.  
"Yeah, we thought you would overreact like this." Amethyst followed up, with a hint of regretful annoyance in her voice.  
"Overreact?!" His dad yelled. Some crashing was heard. "How do you expect me to react? My only son just got back from being kidnapped by aliens, he had a black eye for a whole week, and now some guy with weapons is looking for him?" Greg paused for a second.  
"Look Greg, we understand how you feel. But we need to think this through, he only said he would talk to Steven if Steven sought him out." Pearl explained. Greg sighed.  
"I agreed that you guys would take care of him because I wouldn't be able to when it would come to this stuff. But with all that's been going on lately, I don't know if any of us really know how to do it right." Greg said with uncertainty, and Steven could feel the everyone shift from where they stood or sat.

Steven breathed in and walked inside.


	6. Chapter 6

_Steven breathed in and walked inside._

"I know you guys are doing the best you can." Steven said. Everyone turned to look at him.  
"Steven!" They all yelled in unison and approached him with concern.  
"How much did you hear?" Greg asked nervously. Steven looked at him, whilst the crystal gems waited for his answer.  
"All of it." Steven said confidently. Everyone was worried of what Steven might say. "Dad I know you're worried about me, just like the Gems. But I can handle myself now. I've grown up so much and learned so many things from them." Steven said.

"I know Steven but I still worry about you, I'm your dad! I'm not immortal or have powers like them or you," Greg got down to eye level with him. "and it scares me even more that I can't help you on your adventures like they can, the best I could do is drive you to places with my van." Greg hugged Steven closer to him. "And even then I mess that up. There's only so much I can take as a parent." "I know dad, and it scares me too." Steven admitted.  
"It does?" Greg asked surprised.  
"Yeah, it does, it scares me that I'm not strong enough I won't be able to protect those I love." Steven said. "But thats why the Gems are here," he turned to look at them and they all smiled, "they teach me how to help everyone else by helping them. Don't you see dad, I want and have to protect everyone I love." Steven finished. Greg got teary-eyed and hugged Steven.  
"I know Steven, you are so much like your mother, and it scares me that you might have to make the same sacrifices she did." Greg then smiled. "But then I remember you don't have to, because you are you're own person, you are Steven Quartz Universe. And you'll find out your own way to save the day." Greg said. Steven looked up at him with a smile as well. Greg then turned to the Gems. "Im sorry. Thank you for keeping him safe this whole time." Greg finished. The gems were also getting teary eyed at the display, and couldn't help but think of Rose.

"GROUP HUG!" Steven yelled in happiness and joy and (somehow) managed to get everyone in a warm embrace. Everyone stayed like that for a while until it seemed fit to stop.  
"Dad I'm sorry I didn't tell you last night about the man, I just didn't want you to worry." Steven admitted. Greg looked at him, thinking about a response.  
"Oh, it's ok sport, I know you do everything for a reason." Greg accepted. "I just want you to be safe you know, all this adventuring... it could be bad sometimes." Greg said hesitantly. Steven chuckled.  
"Don't worry dad, me and the gems will be prepared for anything from here on out. Right guys?" Steven turned to look at the Gems.  
"Right." They all said in unison.  
"Listen Greg," Garnet stepped up. "we know you worry about Steven, and we want you to know that as long as he's with us, he'll get stronger, I can't guarantee he won't get hurt but I promise you we will prepare him for the future." Said Garnet.

"Speaking of getting stronger," Steven said, "How about 2 donuts!" Steven exclaimed as he put the bag that contained both donuts in the air. "I only got two though...for me and dad so...sorry guys." Steven apologized.  
"Don't worry about it Steven, we'll eat later." Garnet said as she walked in her room.  
"But Garnet!" Both Pearl and Amethyst said at the same time, Pearl to remind her she didn't like eating, and Amethyst because she wanted to eat right now. Garnet turned to look at them with a comical stoic expression.  
"Later." She repeated with no intention of doing it again. Pearl and Amethyst ceased their complaints almost immediately. Garnet began to walk to her room, the stopped to say something else.

"Steven, Greg." She said, both paying attemtion. "We're going to Fish Stew's Pizza later, be ready in a few hours." Garnet informed. Steven and Greg stood, imitating soldier salutes.  
"Yes M'am" they said in unison. They didn't have a problem with being treated to lunch. Every Gem went to their own room for...who knows.  
Steven proceeded to give his dad a donut.  
Steven looked to his dad.  
"Hey dad." He said.  
"Hmm?" Greg looked to Steven.  
"I really am sorry that I didn't tell you last night about the guy. I wasn't sure how to tell you. I was going to tell you when I came back though." Steven admitted.  
"It's ok Steven, I just don't want you to get involved with the wrong people. Pearl showed me what he looked like from her hologram forehead...magic thing." Greg said, confused at how to explain Pearl's holographic visions. Steven then remembered.  
"That's the thing though, dad. I don't think he is a bad guy." Steven claimed.  
"What?" Greg asked a little confused.  
"Lars and Sadie said they were saved from a robber by that same guy earlier today." Steven informed his dad.  
"That's strange, why would he stop a crime if he was dressed like a merce-" Greg stopped himself.  
"Like a what?" Steven asked.  
"Like...you know what, I'll tell you if I see him. I don't want to make any accusations or anthing. No armed dude is going to talk to my son without my say so." Greg said lighting up the mood. Steven shook his head.

"Yeah, maybe we could investigate him if we see him." Steven said. He then gasped. "What if we see him at Fish Stew's Pizza later. We could ask him then. I thought he was a bad guy, but he saved Lars and Sadie earlier today so who knows." Steven said with hope of meeting the man again, he started to regret being rude to him when they first met. He wasn't going to immediately trust him though, he had to say sorry to Pearl if he wanted to get on Stevens good side.  
"Yeah, let's put a pin on that, lets try not to over think these things, ok kiddo." Greg said not exactly worried, but also not really excited about talking to the man that wanted to talk to his son. He still had to be defensive of Steven.  
Both father and son finished their donuts after their conversation. Greg got up from where he sat.  
"Well Steven, I'm gonna go back to my van. Take a nap and get ready for pizza later." Greg informed Steven. Putting emphasis on the pizza part of his sentence.  
"Ok dad, see ya then." He said, right before Greg walked out the new doorway, Steven yelled out. "Wait!" Greg stopped and turn to look at Steven. "Thanks for helping out dad." Steven said with a bright smile. Greg smiled back sincerely.  
"No problem Steven, I'm always here when you need me." Greg smiled back as he walked out the door. Steven was alone in the living room now. He didn't know what to do at the moment so he pulled out his phone to text Connie about what's happened.


	7. Chapter 7

Steven and the Gems were getting ready to eat at Fish Stew's Pizza. The gems were wearing a more stylized version of their outfits, with more casual clothing that resembled jeans shorts and tank tops in their color schemes. Steven was wearing a pink Hawaiian button shirt with a combination of flowers and stars.

"What's the special occasion Garnet? You almost never come out to eat." Steven asked politely.  
"I just thought you might need a break from all thats been going on, so we will get a meal together." Garnet said. Steven smiled at her thoughtfulness.  
"Um...Garnet, I don't actually have to...you know." Pearl said anxiously. Garnet looked at her with an unreadable expression.  
"No Pearl, you don't have to." She said. Pearl then went from nervous to joyous in a heartbeat.  
"Oh thank you Garnet." Pearl almost yelled as she was relieved of her "burden."  
"Hey Garnet, can I have Pearl's pizza since she won't eat it?" Amethyst asked.  
"Sure." She said.  
"YEAAAA! Alright, more pizza for the Purple Puma!" She said excitedly.  
Garnet just chuckled at her family's antics and proceeded to walk to the door and opened it for the rest of them.  
"Let's get going." She said and they all followed after her.

They were all beginning to walk down the beach towards the Kofi's Pizzeria. As they were a few feet away from entering they saw Greg coming from the other side, wearing his dark green turtleneck, and black jean shorts. Steven waved to his dad before they met up at the front of the pizzeria.  
"Thanks Garnet for inviting us." Greg said politely.  
"No problem." She said as she walked into the restaurant with the gems following in after her. Steven and Greg followed after and they all took a seat on five person booth. The table set with plates, cups, and silverware. Steven sat in the middle between Greg and Garnet while Pearl and Amethyst were at the ends of the booth.  
"This is nice." Steven said. "The whole family is here and every body is happy!" He exclaimed. They were then approached by Kiki holding a pen and notepad.  
"Hey guys, what're we havin' tonight? I see everyone is here so it must be a special occasion. Right?" She asked politely with a sassy hint in her voice.  
"You could say that." Garnet said as she smiled at her politeness. She then turned to Steven, Amethyst, and Greg. "What are we having?" She asked them. They all yelled excitedly.

"Extra large pepperoni!"  
"With cheesy crust!"  
"And pink lemonade!"  
Kiki chuckled nervously as she sweat-dropped.  
"Well somebody sure is hungry." She said. "So a extra large pie, cheesy crust, and pink lemonade all around?" She repeated the order to get it approved.  
"Actually they ordered pizza not pie." Pearl spoke to correct Kiki's choice of words. Kiki chuckled.  
"No, pie is just a slang term for pizza. Kinda like dogs with hot dogs and bad with good." She counter-corrected Pearl. Pearl only got confused at her explanation of the words.  
"But that doesn't make any-"  
"Yeah, that was our order." Amethyst interrupted Pearl so that she could bring their food faster.  
"Coming right up." Kiki said before walking away to give her dad, Kofi, the order.  
"Why do you have to complicate things Pearl? Just accept slang words." Amethyst said annoyed.  
"Well I'm sorry if I didn't understand the way humans have a tendency to change the definition of words for faster communication." Pearl,explained. "I don't see any point in it, certain words exist to have a meaning not have their antonyms define them, it's so disorganized if you ask me." Pearl finished as everyone just stared at her after she explained her opinion of the predicament. "What?" she asked.  
"Like I said, over-complicate things." Amethyst said proving her earlier point.  
"Ahem." Garnet got everybody's attention. "You two need to hold off on your fights." She told the two of them. "We actually do need to discuss something however." She said. "It's about the recent events." She said.  
"Ok..."Both Steven and Greg said. Garnet continued.  
"We wanted to talk to you, Greg, about the menace of Peridot's stay here on Earth. We have been trying to look for her in a group of two, we couldn't risk Steven being left alone to be attacked by Peridot or some other creature, and our efforts to patrol for Peridot were minimal." She said.  
"Ok." Greg said nervously. "I'm guessing you're not here to ask me to keep Steven safe." He said. Steven looked on at the talk they were having.  
"Unfortunately no. Greg we know that as a parent you care for Steven, but if it came to danger, Steven is naturally more capable than you." Garnet admitted. Greg frowned.  
"So you can't take him with you and I can't take care of him. What is your plan Garnet?" Greg asked open to am idea she was obviously building up to.  
"We find that man that was looking for Steven and ask him for help." Garnet said seriously.  
"No." Greg said immediately.  
"Greg you nee-" Garnet began.  
"No, I will not allow some stranger I hardly know to teach Steven, if he's in danger let me handle it." Greg said. "You can't be serious about this? Pearl?" Greg asked Pearl, knowing she was the one who fought the man first and thought she would be against it.  
"At first I was. But we have to see the big picture here Greg. If we want to catch and find Peridot we need to all three of us, plus the man said he wanted to teach Steven himself and he has proven to be more than capable of fighting. We discussed this in Garnets room earlier and as much as we hate to say this, but this stranger is the only person capable of this. Look Greg, we hate to do this, especially since we have to leave Steven alone. But we can't bring him with us because we can't keep a constant eye on him." Pearl explained trying very hard to keep her calm demeanor on the situation. Greg looked defeated and somewhat sad, he then turned to Steven, who was just listening in until this point.

"What do you think Steven? Do you think this is a good plan?" Greg asked sincerely. Steven looked as if the whole weight of the situation fell on top of his shoulders. He was thinking it through as best as he could. He was weighing both pros and cons. Garnet was right, they would be distracted by him too much if he went with them. But he didn't want to hurt his dad's feelings, he knew Greg wouldn't hurt him, but there was that nagging feeling in the back of his head that his dad would be mad or disappointed at him. And it scared him. "Steven." Greg said. Steven looked at his dad with a worried expression. His dad gave him a reassuring smile. "No matter your decision, I'll support it." Greg smiled at him. Steven calmed down and smiled back. He looked at the gems, and made his decision.

"I..." he hesitated one last time. "I think its best that they go find Peridot." He said. Everyone looked at him and thought that was it. "But," everyone waited for him to continue. "I think I should move in to the house until you guys come back. And we would look for the guy later around town. I want all of us to see if he is what he seems." Steven said finally. Everyone looked at him, surprised at how maturely he decided to handle the situation in ways that the rest of the gems or Greg knew. Steven had sweat dripping from the side of his head just from deciding that. He then felt Garnet put her hand on his shoulder.  
"Steven," He looked up at her. "You're growing up and taking control." She smiled. "We're proud of you." She said.  
"Yeah, good job, kiddo." Greg supported and gave him a thumbs up.  
"Nice thinking there little man. "Praised Amethyst.  
"Steven, I'm impressed." Said Pearl.  
Steven stopped sweating and smiled back at them.  
"Really?!" He asked happily, blushing a little bit.  
"Yeah." Greg said.  
"We gave you two options on the table, and you chose another way. Good job Steven." Garnet as she smiled at him.  
"Aw thanks guys." As he was about to ask for more praise, until Kiki came with their pizza balanced on her right hand and lemonade jar on the man.  
"Order up guys." She said as she placed both on the table. "Enjoy your meal guys." She smiled politely as she left them.  
"To be continued." Said Greg as he grabbed a slice and placed it on his plate. Everyone else, except Pearl, began to eat. Steven was on his second pizza and said.  
"Thanks guys, I know you all try, and guys don't worry, I'll be fine with dad at the house." He said happily.  
"As long as he doesn't break anything." Pearl mumbled comically.  
"Just be sure that Steven is alright with the man, Greg." Said Garnet. "We will look for him afterwards and ask him a fee questions before we leave."  
"Yeah, who knows, maybe he's a spy." Amethyst joked. Greg frowned a little bit.  
"That's not funny." He said.

"What if he is though? I could be..."Steven imagined himself with a fitting tuxedo, wearing sunglasses, and had an earpiece. "Steven the Spy Gem. I'd have all the cool gadgets in the world." His eyes began to shine as his imagination faded.  
"See Greg, pretty cool." Amethyst said nonchalantly as she bit into her pizza.  
Greg sighed.  
"So Garnet, how is it that you're able to afford this pizza, did you have some money saved up for the occasion?" Greg asked as he took a sip of his lemonade.  
"What are you talking about?" She asked. "I only invited everyone to eat pizza, I never said I was gonna pay." She put on her usual mysterious expression. Steven and Greg then looked at her with nervous expression. Before they could say anything, Kofi heard it and burst from the kitchen with a serious face.  
"What are you talking about?" He asked. "I hope that one of you will at least pay." He looked at them with his arms crossed. All the Gems looked like they could care less about the bill. Steven looked at his dad with a nervous smile and hoped he at least had money.  
"What are you looking at me for, I thought she had us covered." He said in defense, both him and Steven looked at Kofi.  
"Well? How will you be paying for you extra large pepperoni stuffed crust pizza with lemonade?" He asked looking down on them. No one answered him. His frown deepened  
"That is it! Not a single one of you is leaving this establishment until you have paid off your order." He said with finality. The Gems looked at each other.  
"We don't really have to right." Asked Amethyst.  
"Of course not, we as gems aren't obligated to pay for food that we don't even need to eat. Right Garnet?" Informed Pearl. Garnet 'humphed.'  
"We don't have to." She said. Steven began to get nervous as he felt obligated to pay for his food, and Greg was a little embarrassed at being in this kind of situation. "None of you is leaving here unless I am satisfied with a contribution on your behalves!" He yelled for good measure.

Suddenly, there was a rumble in the restaurant. Everyone of the could see through the windows that a giant purple gem crab was crawling its way from the docks toward the pizzeria. Kofi noticed this and began to panic.  
"Aaah! That thing is heading here, do something!" He yelled in desperation that his business wouldn't be destroyed. He was expecting the Gems to jump immediately into action and save the day. They were just sitting in the booth, not caring. "What are you doing, that thing is heading this way!" He yelled. The gems looked at them with mocking grins. Steven and Greg were a little nervous at this.  
"I'm sorry, I thought you said that we 'are not to leave the establishment until we made a contribution on our behalves' if I'm not mistaken." Pearl said sarcastically.  
"Yeah, what she said." Amethyst said not bothering to say more than that.  
"Yeah, how do we pay off our order with no money?" Garnet asked.  
"Are you kidding, that monster is coming here!" Kofi yelled as the crab was a few meters away from his store. He looked back and forth between the Gems and the crab, he then made up his mind. "Ok ok ok, that pizza is free if you get rid of that crab without destroying my store!" He yelled in panic. The gems looked unsatisfied with his offer. Greg and Steven were going to tell them to do something until Kofi spoke up again.  
"I'll make all your pizzas from now on 50%!" He yelled finally.  
"Eh good enough." Said Amethyst as she was the first one to spring out the door, with Garnet and Pearl following after. Steven and Greg were shocked at what justi happened, but Steven ignored it and went with the gems.  
"I gotta help them dad, stay here." And he ran after them to join in the fight with the gems.


	8. Chapter 8

The Gems were fighting off the giant purple gem crab, and doing very well against it. Upon closer inspection of it, they realized that one of its claws was bigger that the other and it was completely made of a crystal. The gems were having no problem dealing damage to it, even Steven managed to throw a few rocks at its eyes to blind it.

"Kofi was worried about this? It's not even putting up a fight." Steven admitted. Garnet was underneath the monster with both her gauntlets punching its underbelly, Amethyst was holding one of its legs with her whip, and Pearl was trying to penetrate its back with her spear.  
It wasn't that it was putting much of a fight, it just had too hard an exterior to penetrate immediately.  
"Man, I really thought this would've been harder." Steven said disappointingly at the situation. He was honestly getting used to having real challenges where he had to act and react, this was boring.  
"I wish this was more challenging." He said. Even the gems were taking this easy.

Suddenly, the wind began to pick up speed and the breeze became almost like a mini tornado. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up to see a blue gem octopus using its tentacles to spin around in place to fly. Its beak was made of a blue crystal as well.

"Whoa, a Gemtopus" He said as if he's seen one before.  
The Gemtopus saw the crab and began to make its way toward it.  
"Yes it's not just the crab! This is gonna be harder." Steven yelled with enthusiasm. The crab saw the Gemtopus and it looked like it was now determined to go toward it, it used its crystal-like arm to hit the ground and it created a shockwave around it. The gems lost their balance and fell to the ground. The crab then began to move toward the Gemtopus, once both gem monsters came within each other, they looked at each other and circled as if daring one another to step in its own territory.  
"Guys, I think they're gonna fight. Maybe they'll take each other out." Steven said in excitement, he seen gem monsters fight each other, so this was rare for him to see. However, both the monsters began to glow a bright color and their bodies began to merge, almost like "Fusion..."

"Steven get back!" Pearl shouted as she got in front of him along with Amethyst and Garnet.  
As soon as the monster's fusion was complete, the result was strange to say the least. This new monster was slightly larger than it's previous selves. It looked like it had the body of the Gemtopus, but the once squishy looking skin was now replaced with what seemed like the a harder version of the crab's exoskeleton. Its legs were more tentacle like, but at the end of each one was a massive crab claw. It had four eyes, two sticking out like the crabs and two where ears should be. All the Crystal Gems were shocked at this display.

"This is terrible! Can corrupt gems fuse?" Pearl panicked as she didn't know how this was possible if corrupt gem's soul purpose was to wreak havoc.  
"It doesn't matter we just need to take it down!" Yelled Garnet as she began to run towards it, with her Power Gauntlets ready. She jumped in the air and was a bout to make a direct hit on the monster fusion, but it used one of its legs like a flail and pushed Garnet put of the way. Amethyst spin dashed herself toward its legs to see if she could get it off balance. However, the monster jumped into the air began to rotate its legs, causing a massive windstorm in that short amount of time. Amethyst was blown away in her spin form. Pearl used her lance throwing skills to try to hit the monster by throwing her spear at it. Suddenly, the monster stopped spinning, it tangled its tentacles in a drill like form with its claws at the tip of it pointing downward, and let gravity to the rest. Pearl saw this, grabbed Steven amd began to run away from where the monster would land. Once it did, it created an earthquake stronger than the one the crab did earlier. The waves were so strong that they pushed Pearl and Steven upward like the end of a whip. All the Crystal Gems were down for a moment.

"Uuuh" Steven groaned. "I take it back, this is harder than I thought." Steven said. He landed a few inches away from Pearl. Steven saw the monster and the monster saw him, it began to walk toward him. "Aw man." The monster began gaining speed as it walked toward him. Steven looked behind him and saw Pearl struggling to get up, he decided it would be best to lead the creature away from the city and the gems. With that Steven began to run with the monster chasing him. Once he thought he was a good distance away from it he summoned his bubble shield. "Ok, I just need to distract him until the Crystal Gems recover." He said, the monster kept running at him but its two front legs were being dragged across the sand and used them again as a flail in an upward swing against Steven's bubble. The bubble was pushed back, Steven noticed the bubble had cracks from where the monster hit it. "Oh no." The bubble was pushed against a cliff. The monster began to hit the bubble repeatedly with its claws trying to stab through the bubble. The monster then grabbed the bubble with four of its claws and began to squeeze the bubble with the intent of breaking it. Steven was concentrating on making sure the bubble wouldn't break.  
"Aaaaah!" Both Steven and the monster both heard the battle cry of the Crystal Gems as they were about to attack it from behind. However, the fused abomination let of Stevens bubble and grabbed the Gems midair.  
"Oh no." Steven panicked.  
"Un hand us you monster." Pearl yelled as she tried to use her Spear to blast the exterior of the monster. Garnet was holding the claws back with her Gauntlets, and Amerhyst was hitting the claws with her fists.  
"What do we do now?" Steven asked as he saw the severity of the situation.

_A few minutes earlier._

A man was sitting on sofa, watching TV in his cheap motel room. He was wearing simple boxers and undershirt. He had a can of tea in one hand and TV remote in the other.  
"In later news, the re-elected mayor of city of winds has decided to shut down more public schools-" He turned it off and yawned.  
"There's nothing good on here." He sipped from his tea. Suddenly, his room began to shake, he held on to his sofa out of instinct. He stood up and pushed the curtains out of the way from the window and saw what was happening outside. His one eye widened at what was going on outside. The Crystal Gems and Steven were fending off a giant monster.

"Why now of all times?" He began to rush in his room trying to put on his armor and find what he would need. "My boots, my boots, where are they?" He began to search frantically for them. He found one them and put it on quickly. He began to search for a rectangular box that he was sure he brought in. "Where is it?" He ran frantically around the room and tripped over something, sure enough he .he was looking for. He opened the box and looked inside, his one eye sparkled at it. "Theres my little beauty." He said happily. He put his beauty over his shoulder, placed a few knives on his bandoliers, his sword in its scabbard on his back and jambiya knife on his hip's scabbard. "Alright lets do this." He opened the door stepped out and the floor was really cold. He looked down. "Dang it." He went back inside and found his other boot. As soon as he put it on he ran out as fast as he could out of the motel. "No time for cool speech, gotta get there, gotta get there, gotta get there." He began to mumble as he was sprinting his way there.

He was almost the docks but saw Steven run to the beach house. He then followed after but instead of following through the sand, he went up the cliff and kept running until he saw that Steven and the monster stopped, the monster attacked his bubble for a while, the Crystal Gems tried to bush it only to get caught. He set down his 'beauty' and got down on his stomach and set up his 'beauty'.

_Back to the present._

_"What to we do now?"_

"This is the single fire AP-178 rifle. It holds a five round magazine, with seven-inch armor piercing bullets, with a traveling speed of over twenty-five thousand miles per hour. But what really is beatiful about this rifle is the silencer. Alone, this baby can sound like thunder, but the silencer completely covers it." He took his aim on the gem monster. "I don't need a scope to hit you at this distance." He fired and it hit the creatures hard skin, and it went straight through, The creature shrieked in pain. The man shot once again. This time the creature let go of all the Gems, including Steven in his bubble, which shattered as it hit the ground. The man fired a third time and it hit the monsters hide again. Suddenly, the man got up, put his rifle on his back and jumped off the cliff toward the monster who was still standing. He landed on its back and placed knives in all of the holes he shot it at.  
"These knives have dynamite hilts." And fair enough, the handles were red with a fuse at the end. "So sorry if this hurts in advance." He said as he jumped off its back. As he landed, he used his feet to push him forward and roll forward on his back. The knives went off and the all three dynamite sticks exploded. Fortunately, they all exploded at the same time and the monster 'poofed' into two separate gems. The Crystal Gems got back up, and Steven managed to bubble up both corrupt gems before the others.

"We really lucked out now right guys." Steven said. "I'm glad that's over, now lets not these guys out, like ever." He said comically.  
"Speaking of..." Amethyst began. "What happened? All I saw was that thing let us go and some guy landed on it and it just went...poof."  
"There he is! That's _the_ guy!" Pearl exclaimed.  
They all looked at the man who was sprawled lazily on the floor. He flipped over on his back and held his shoulder. His face contorted into the realization of something.  
"Oh gosh, that recoil hurts now." He yelped. He saw the wreck of his plan. "I can't believe that actually worked." He saw that the Gems were looking him. "Yo" he saluted them.

"Who are you?" Garnet asked.


	9. Chapter 9

_"Who are you?" Garnet asked._

The man stood up.  
"I am currently the man you owe a 'thank you' to. I did just save you guys." He said, dusting off the sand from his armor. He saw Pearl and pointed at her. "Didn't you have bruises?" He asked. Pearl frowned at him.  
"I heal quickly you oaf!" She yelled at him. Garnet began to move menacingly toward the man, with her Gauntlets activated. The man saw her coming toward him and he began to talk fast.  
"Ok Garnet, my shoulder hurts from the recoil and my feet from the landing, I'm gonna need, like, a five minute break to be good." She shoved him back several feet. He uses the momentum to flip backwards on his feet. He took out his sword and Jambiya knife. "Never mind, we're back in business." He yelled excitedly and gave an almost maniacal grin at Garnet. Steven stepped in to stop what might have happened.  
"Stoooop!" They both looked at him. "Can't we just talk? He saved our lives and we were planning on looking for him anyway." He looked at Garnet with puppy dog eyes.

"I can't say no to that face." She said. Steven turned to the man, who was putting his blades away in their scabbard.  
"Alright then, let's talk." The man said.  
"Not here, my dad wants to talk to you too." He said. "He's back at Fish Stew's Pizza." He said.  
"Alrighty then, I'm in the mood for fattening food." He said as he marched forward.  
A few moments later everyone was back in their original seats on the booth, except for the man, he had to sit at a separate table to be interrogated by everyone separately, except by Steven. Greg went up first, as he was Stevens dad.

"Ok, who exactly are you?" Greg asked immediately pointing his finger at the man. The man looked at Greg as if he met or saw him before.  
"You look familiar." He said. "Have we met?" The man asked, ignoring the question.  
"Don't change the subject, who are you and what do you want with my son?" Greg asked with more vigor.  
"My name is Thean." He said quickly. "Seriously, I'm sure I know you or about you." He said looking a little annoyed that he couldn't remember.  
"Ok then, Thean. What do you want with my son?" Greg repeated. Thean dropped the subject and decided to answer his questions.  
"I am a man hired by someone in this town to teach Steven about humans and their multiple cultures. I am here to do as my contract says." He said seriously.  
"What are you, some kind of hit-man? A gun for hire? You say you have to teach him as if you're a teacher." Greg bombarded him.  
"I am two out of those. Although I don't have a degree for either." Thean said as he leaned back in his chair and put his legs on the table. He saw Greg's worried look. "Look sir, if you're worried about me hurting Steven don't worry about it, I'm not here to hurt him. I'm just here to be as a...role model, as opposed to the Gems over there. A human tutor if you will." He explained. "If it makes you feel better I'll teach him with you around at all times." He sat up straight.  
"What exactly about history and cultures are you going to teach him?" Greg asked, settling down.  
"Some fighting tactics. A little bit of history from foreign cultures, modern cultures, good, bad people in history. The point is I am here to give Steven a better sense of what he should fight for. His humanity, he is half human after all." He said. Greg looked at him with suspicion.  
"I know a lot ok. My client supported me with the information necessary to do this." He said.  
"And what do you gain from all this?" Greg asked.  
"I don't know, maybe I'll learn a few things from him, maybe make some friends in this city, have an adventure or two. Maybe even find myself." He sounded as if he was trying to start a moment. But pulled out a piece of paper. "Plus I already got a check so... yeah." He admitted. Greg face palmed.  
"So you're not here to hurt him?" He asked one more time.  
"No."  
"And you can protect him?"  
"Yes."  
"If you hurt him I will come after you." Greg said.  
"I won't hurt him, you have my word." Thean said.  
Silence.

Greg smiled comfortably knowing he had Thean's word.  
"You know, I was a rock star before, maybe that should help." Greg said in good nature. Thean snapped his fingers.  
"Mr. Universe! The one man band!" Thean exclaimed. "When my contract said Universe I never would have thought that it would've been your son! Wow!" Thean put his hand to his forehead in a salute. "You can count on me to keep Steven safe sir."  
"Wow, a long time fan, I didn't know I had any anywhere." Greg said as if he found a long lost relative. "What song of mine is your favorite?" He asked him with his interest peaked.  
"I'm Just a Comet." Thean admitted. "That song is just so amazing."  
From their booth the gems and Steven saw that Greg and the man were talking in good fun now.  
"Look at that, Dad seems to be ok with him." Steven said smiling. Garnet saw it as a ploy to get on Greg's good side.  
She got up and walked toward them.

"I even had my long hair to match yours." Thean said excitedly.  
"Nice, I was wondering why it resembled mine so much." Greg laughed until Garnet tapped him on the shoulder.  
"My turn." She said, Greg got a bit scared by her and he stood up.  
"Listen if you're interested and have any copies of my albums I'll be happy to autograph 'em for you." Greg said.  
"Sure, I'll get them later, this is so awesome." Thean said.  
Greg left and Garnet sat down in his place.  
"Ok, I heard you both from all the way over there, so don't bother repeating any of that." She said.  
"Alright, but just so you know, his music is actually really good. You should listen to it sometime." He said.  
Garnet had a flashback to when she did listen to it and jumped out of the van. She shuttered.  
"I'll pass." she said. "Listen. I don't know you, nor do I have the time to. All you need to know is that us Gems are going to find something out there. And we need Steven here, we were wondering if you would be able keep Steven safe." She informed.  
"I have extensive training in Xilam, Zui Quan, and Engolo. I rely on what I have and study my environment carefully. I also have fair knowledge of my limited, but powerful arsenal of weapons." Thean said. "I am more than capable of keeping Steven safe."  
"So you're method of fighting is based on resurrected martial arts, fast movements, and unpredictability?" She asked.  
"Yes." He said.

They both stayed quiet for a moment. She signaled for Steven to come to them. "Ok then, we will be back every two days, until we find Peridot. Until then, we leave you in this man's protection."  
She said.  
"I have a name." Thean said, but was ignored.  
"Are you guys gonna be ok?" Steven asked innocently.  
"Don't worry, we'll be back faster than you can sing...well I don't know what, but we will be back." Garnet assured him. She kissed his forehead. Ans walked toward the rest of the Gems. Leaving Steven and Thean alone for a moment.  
"'Sup kid." Thean said.  
"Hi...guy." Steven said awkwardly. "So you're a teacher slash crime fighter?" Steven asked trying to start a conversation.  
"Sorta, maybe." Thean answered.  
"Ok then, what's your name again?" Steven asked.  
"Thean. Tries hard every after noon." He said as a matter of factly. Steven chuckled.  
"Is that really what it stands for?" He asked.  
"No, but I do exercise in the afternoon." He informed. "And probably'll teach you in the afternoon. So yeah." He said.  
"Oh, ok." Steven agreed to it. The gems approached them both. Pearl spoke first.  
"Now Steven we'll be leaving tomorrow so if you need anything we'll be here for you. Also," She addressed Thean. "You are not allowed inside the house whatsoever." She said as politely as she could.  
"No worries, I got a tent I can set up outside the house. And you guys aren't allowed in there." He countered.


	10. Chapter 10

Steven woke up the next morning after the previous night, Greg went home, Thean said he would go to his motel room to get a few things and the Gems would be doing some other stuff. There was a commotion going on outside the beach house. A lot of banging, drilling, and blowtorch being used could be heard coming from outside. Steven got up, with bags under his eyes as he was still tired.  
"What's going on?" He asked himself.

He looked out the window and saw Thean was making what appeared to be multiple tents in a pattern of a five pointed star. Five tents served as the edges surrounding one in the center. Each tent was black with neon blue lights outlining them. The one in the center was slightly bigger than the rest. Steven decided to ask Thean about his tent. He put on a jacket over his pajamas, and a pair of fuzzy slippers. It was really cold out in the mornings in beach city this time of the year.  
Steven walked out of the house and made his way to Thean, it looked as if he was finished with each tent.

"Good morning." Steven said. Thean turned around and saw Steven.  
"Oh Steven, you're up. Good. I wanted you to see this." Thean said. "As you can see, I have six tents set up here." He paused to let Steven ask a question.  
"Why do you have six and why did you need a hammer, drill, and blowtorch." Steven asked while rubbing his eyes.  
"Oh, you see Steven, these are no mere camping tents, these are state few years art' tents. Watch." Thean pulled out a remote with a single button on it and pressed it. Suddenly the five external tents grew hollowed 'arms' and attached themselves each other as well as the one in the center. It resembled Stevens Gem design.

"Behold! The multi-unit tent-house. The center is large enough to fit 3 people. The other tents are like rooms with different purposes. There's a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom, a storage room, a weight room, and, most important of all, a power room." Thean explained to an awed Steven. Steven was fully awake at this point and bouncing with excitement.  
"What, else does it have?" Steven asked, being overwhelmed with how awesome the tent looked.  
"I'm glad you asked. It runs on its own power so I have air conditioning, a heater, clean and running water, etcetera, etcetera." He explained. "The only downside is that it is very high maintenance and the power is generated from the exercise I do in the weight room. Kinetic Energy is exhausting." Thean said.  
"Wow, how did you build this all. I thought you had a motel room?" Steven asked as if criticizing him but still being amazed.  
"I got it this morning, plus, I'm not spending another day in that cheap motel room, not when I have this." Thean explained excitedly. "Well I'm going in it now, I was up the last hour setting it up and am very much tired." Thean said as he yawned. He patted Steven on the head. "Take the morning off and spend it however you want, I will be enjoying myself here." Thean said as he walked inside one of the outer tents. "Also, no one is allowed in here." He quickly said before walking inside. Steven looked so amazed. At just the mere sight of the multi-unit tent.

The Gems ran out of the house and saw Steven in front of the tent.  
"Steven! What is that?!" Pearl yelled in worry. The gems jumped off the balcony and landed next to Steven.  
"Whoa. Check out this guys crib." Amethyst pointed out. "It looks so...future-y." She added.  
"It's Thean's tent." Steven responded to Pearl. "Pretty cool, huh Pearl?" He said.  
Pearl frowned at the tent. She walked toward one of the doors and knocked.  
"Thean, may we have a word with you?" Pearl said. She knocked again. "Should we try knocking harder. Garnet approached the door and punched the door, unfortunately, it opened at the last second and she hit Thean in the face. He fell down to the ground and held his face.  
"Ack! What the heck was that?!" He yelled.  
"Sorry." Garnet said nonchalantly.  
"Look we came to ask you about your...home." Pearl started. Thean was still rubbing his nose.  
"What about it?" He asked with an annoyed look.  
"Well for starters, what's it doing on the beach?" She started.  
"Yeah well for starters, I have to be near Steven at all times. Contract says its mandatory. But since I'm not allowed in the house, well I'll let you figure that out." He said holding his nose. "Yes well, we're going to need you to move elsewhere, preferably back to where it is you came from." Pearl said as if he would oblige.  
"No." He answered.  
"What?" She asked surprise that he would deny her.  
"I will be staying here and look for Steven in the afternoons for tutoring. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some sleep to catch up on, not all of us have unlimited energy to spare." He said with finality, and closed the door.  
"Gee Pearl, you're such a buzzkill." Amethyst said.  
"I am not!" Pearl said defiantly as she crossed her shoulders.  
"Garnet will you guys still be here for a while?" They all turned toward him.  
"Yes Steven, we have a few hours before we leave. What do you wanna do?" She asked nicely. Stevens eyes shined like stars.  
"Steven tag!" He tagged Pearl first. "You're it." He said as he poked her leg. Pearl sighed. Everyone waited to see what her response would be, as last time she didn't want to play.  
"Alright." She transformed into 'Steven' but with her pointy nose still intact, "Ready or not, here I come." Amethyst, Garnet and Steven began to try to get away from Pearl, who was fast, even with Stevens body. This went on for a few hours Steven and the gems were playing their game, at which point everyone was Steven.

After a while, Garnet said.  
"It's almost time." She transformed back into her normal form. "Steven we need to go." She said as Pearl and Amethyst changed back into their original forms.  
"Ok, I understand." Steven said with sad face. "I hope you guys are safe. And that you find her quickly." Steven said to lighten himself up.  
"No prob little guy, we'll be back every two days to check on you." Amethyst said while grinning an assuring smile at him. Giving him the thumbs up as she did so.  
"Plus you have everything and everyone you need." Reminded Pearl. "Even if some are on short notice." She mumbled referring to Thean. Garnet spoke up again.  
"Steven, whatever happens we will come back for you. There's some of your favorite snacks in the house. And," she pulled out the warp whistle. "We leave this in your care. In case of emergency." She grabbed his cheek motherly. "You've grown up so much and we know we can trust you with it." She bent down and kissed his forehead. Steven's eyes widened and he smiled in excitement.  
"Did you give me future vi-" He started.  
"No." She stopped him and stood up.  
"Crystal Gems, fall out." She said as they all ran back toward the house.  
"Take care Steven!" Pearl yelled.  
"We'll be back before you know it." Amethyst yelled as well.  
"Bye guys, I'll see you guys later, or sooner!" He yelled back at them. From where he stood, Steven saw a bright light going off inside the house, signifying they left on the warp pad. Steven was about to take out his phone, to text Connie, when, seemingly, out of nowhere Thean grabbed him by the arm gently but quickly.  
"I would appreciate it if you didn't have electronic devices when my class is in session."


	11. Chapter 11

_"I would appreciate it if you didn't have electronic devices when class is in session."_

"Oh, ok." Steven put his phone back into his pocket. "What will we learn today?"  
"Well, first we have to go to the top of that hill." Thean pointed at the hill Steven stood over with next to Ronaldo when he came back to Earth.  
"Oh, are we gonna brood?" Steven asked in curiosity as thats what Ronaldo said people go up there to do.  
"What? No, I got a erasable board and everything up there." He said. "Do you go to brood up there?" He asked Steven.  
"No, but a friend of mine does?" He informed him.  
"Interesting." Thean thought for a second. "Well let's just hope he isn't there today." He said.  
"Wait, quick question about the tent, don't you think it's a bit...out there? Like it seems too much?" Steven asked.  
"No." Thean simply told him and began to walk. "It's not even mine, my client payed for it." Thean left it at that, and Steven followed him.

* * *

As they reached the hilltop, which Steven was getting sore feet from walking past the entire city and extra miles, both of them saw Ronaldo looking at Theans equipment.  
"No way! This is obviously proof that sneople are watching us from afar and taking notes how to conquer us! I gotta put this in my blog!" Ronaldo said as he was about to take out his phone. Thean frowned at this.  
"Excuse me. I'm gonna have to not do that." Thean came up from behind him. Ronaldo turned around and looked at him.  
"Go away, can't you see I'm putting these signs in my vlog." Ronaldo said with irritation. "I finally have proof! The truth must be told!" He yelled confidently as he was going to resume taking pictures. Thean grunted. He was about to give Ronaldo a piece of his mind when Steven stopped him.  
"I'll take care of this." Steven said all sure of himself. "Ronaldo." Ronaldo turned around to see Steven.  
"Steven, you're hear! Quick! Help me with my blogs." He requested.  
"Actually, this is all my doing...again." Steven lied. "This is all me and the gems again." Ronaldo's face fell.  
"What?! Again? Dangit! I was sure I finally had something." Ronaldo frowned and looked down at the floor.  
"Actually I think I saw some level 5 beings in disguise hanging out by the boardwalk." Steven lied with a face that was proud he came up with it.  
"Really?! I gotta get that for my blog. Thanks Steven." He said as he began to run excitedly to where Steven gave him the false information.  
Thean was thoroughly impressed.  
"Nice work there. Level 5 beings?" He asked curiously.  
"Yup, you can read all about it in his blog: Keep Beach City Weird!" Steven said.  
"Sure, maybe later, right now I can finally teach you." He said as he pulled out an erasable marker amd walked to the board.  
"Can I sit on the grass, my feet hurt." Steven said.  
"Sure, but know that we will make this walk as much as we can to teach you." Thean informed him.  
"What?" Steven was surprised.  
"Anyway, what do you know about people?" Thean suddenly asked.  
"Hmm, they can cook?" He responded.  
"Are you asking me or telling me?" Thean asked.  
"Telling you?" Steven was confused. Thean looked at him with a face that asked 'which is it?' "Telling you." Steven said firmly.  
"Thats better." Thean wrote that down on his board. "Anything else?"  
"They have jobs. And schools." Steven said as Thean wrote it down on the board.  
"Yes, yes?" He urged Steven to say more.  
"And they have parades, and concerts, and families, and money." Steven said.  
Thean wrote it all on the board, which was almost out of room.  
"Alright that's enough. Now, differences. What do you see different about people?" He asked.  
"Well, some are tall, some have hair, ooh, glasses! Aaand some have better phones than others." He said. Thean wrote it down.  
"Now, what do you know about cultures?" He asked.  
"Like Gem culture?" Steven asked in return.  
"No, human culture. What do you know outside of Beach City?" Thean specified.  
"Oh, I guess nothing really." Steven admitted.  
"And that's what we will learn today." Thean revealed. "You see Steven, Earth is but a small planet in this solar system. But for it to be small and hold all the lives it does...is amazing." Thean paused. "There are many cultures out there Steven. Seven continents, four oceans, 196 countries, thousands of cities housing thousands of cultures, millions of animals, and billions of people." Thean stopped to take in his own speech. "I can't tell you all of them Steven. But I can tell you the ones I know." Thean said, as he flipped the board to the backside to write more.

"There are four groups of people in which every culture fits in one or the the other. But keep in mind they're all still human." He wrote down 'Human' in a a cirlcle and four lines reaching out. "Like I said, there are seven continents in the world. North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, and Oceania. Of all these, places only six are inhabited with five ethnic peoples. Asians, Africans, Latinos, Aboriginals, and European. These are the five that all people genetically derive from. Some today are descendants of two, three, or all cultures." Thean said. "However, even within those ethnic groups, there are thousands of even smaller groups in each from the countries that they correspond." Thean allowed Steven to catch up.  
"Wow, so which category do we live in?" Steven asked.  
"That's the beauty Steven. Back then, those people were limited to their continental boundaries in ancient times. But thanks to the ambitions of many people we live in an age of integration. Where we have people from all over the world living in places their ancestors never heard of." He explained.  
"Wow." Steven sounded amazed. "So everyone makes friends with everyone else?" Steven asked.  
"Not at all." Thean responded, his tone changing completely. "The discovery of many places lead to many bad things. People who had different beliefs than others fought to prove who thought was right. Others fought to invade places that had things they wanted, while others fought to protect their homes. Some fought to make new homes for themselves, whilst kicking others out of theirs in the process." Theans inspirational attitude dropped to one of cynicism.  
"But they were all humans weren't they. Shouldn't they get along?" Steven asked.  
"Steven, life is not that simple. Human beings are a mixed bag. Some are good, and some are bad. Others are in between. Steven, those monsters you and the gems fight, aren't the only things that threaten humanity. Many times, it's a threat to itself." Thean paused to stop writing and looked at Steven. "I've seen more humans than humanity."  
"What does that mean?" Steven asked.  
"That is for you to find out." Thean said.

"Now, there is one main illusion that leads people into the wrong directions. That is the illusion of power. Many believe that if they have more or less than others, it makes them better or inferior. There are many who use others to achieve 'more' of that illusion for their own desires." Thean stopped. "Many people have been victimized by those who thought they had and wanted more." Thean sighed. "Also, many of those try to justify their actions by telling themselves it had to be done. Luckily, there does exist those with a firm grasp of that illusion and know that rather than to abuse it, uses it responsibly for the rights of others." Thean paused. "Both types have existed for all ethnic groups. It is a fact, Steven. But luckily, we are entering an age where we are doing away with ignorance, hate, and greed. Not immediately, but it is in progress. Everyone does what they can." Thean ended.  
"Wow..." Steven was amazed and inspired. "What can I do to help?" He asked with a excitement. Thean chuckled.  
"Steven you and the gems have already done so much already you're protecting life here, in Beach City." Thean said as he knocked down the board and a beautiful view of said city could be seen under a setting sun. "If it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't have this view right now. With everything that goes on in the world, to appreciate what you do have, instead of what you could." Thean said with hinted nostalgia. Steven had stars in his eyes at his words and looked back toward the view.

After a while, Steven jerked at Theans pant leg. Thean looked down at Steven with curiosity.  
"Thanks Thean." Steven smiled up at him. Theans eyebrows shot up then closed his eye.  
"No prob bob." Thean smiled back down at him. "For homework, you will explain me a summary tomorrow on our up here about what you learned." Thean said as he began to make his way back to town.  
"What? Lesson's over? How long were we here?" Steven asked confused.  
"About an hour. Now come on I'll buy you another donut." Thean answered. Steven up walked next him.  
"What? another donut?" He asked.  
"Yeah. The one that was given away at the big donut. You got it right?" They tried to explain to each other of Thean's attempted plan to get Steven a free donut the day he stopped the robbery, as they walked facing the sunset.

* * *

_Ok, first thing is first, thanks for everyone who followed and favorited my fic. Special shot out to OMAC001 for positive reviews for every chapter, you da reviewer. Don't worry, this isn't the last chapter, but there is stuff with school I have to take care of before focusing on this fic, tests and whatnot. It will not be abandoned, I will be posting a chapter next week or before the end of this week._

_Second thing, I hope that this chapter didn't get too serious, I was trying to balance out the bad stuff with the good and tried to make as accurate as I could. I tried to make it like how an older sibling would explain to their younger one the subject of race, good and evil, and history, without getting into too much (graphic) detail._

_Again thanks so much and keep reading and reviewing, it motivates me to keep it coming._


	12. Chapter 12

_Steven was alone in the living room now. He didn't know what to do at the moment so he pulled out his phone to text Connie about what's happened. - Ch. 6._

The next morning, Steven woke up to the ringtone of his phone. A specific ringtone in fact. His tired eyes looked up at the ceiling and he unknowingly reached for his phone. Unfortunately for him, the brightness was on maximum and hurt his eyes, he let go of his phone, which landed on his face.  
"Ouch!" He sat up, clutching his nose.  
Fully awake now, he looked at the message sent by Connie.  
_'Hey, are you ok? You haven't sent me anything since a few days ago.'_ He read. He realized she was right and chose to respond immediately.  
_'Sorry, some stuff happened, we're ok, don't worry, it's just been really busy.'_ He wrote his message as he read it out loud to himself. He pressed sent.  
_'Really?! Some magical stuff?'_ She replied almost instantly. This made Steven think it over, should he tell her more about Thean?  
_'We fought two gem monsters that fused, it was crazy!'_ He decided to tell her later if she brought it up. 'Wow! Thats amazing. So what happened with the guy that blew up the door?' She asked in her text. _Dang it._ He just remembered that he told her about Thean before he knew his name and intentions.  
"Uhh..." He thought about it and before he texted.  
_'hold on, I gotta check on something real quick, I'll text you in a bit.'_ He sent in panic.  
_'Ok'_ she sent him.

Steven got dressed and headed down the beach towards Theans tent(s). He knocked rapidly on one of the doors.  
"Thean I need your help!" Steven cried out. From a different tent, Thean burst out with his sword in hand, but was only in his boxers and undershirt.  
"Who? What? When? Where are they?" He asked frantically. He looked at Steven. "What's the matter?" He asked.  
"I told my friend that you blew up the door and beat up Pearl!" Steven admitted as if it were a crime. Thean gave him a confused look.  
"That's it? I thought you were under attack." Thean calmed down and sheathed his sword. "What happened?" He asked Steven.  
"I told my friend that you were some bad guy before we accepted you." Steven said.  
"So what's the problem? Just tell her what happened afterwards." Thean said.  
"I can't, she thinks that you're a bad guy." Steven said.  
"Wait a minute? This is a she?" Thean smirked at Steven. "What? Is she like your girlfriend?" He asked jokingly. Steven blushed.  
"No that's not it!" Steven got defensive.  
"Oh my! You really have a crush on her don't you?" Thean laughed. Steven began to sweat drop.  
"No it's not like that, look, we're good friends, I just don't want her parents to think that i'm hanging with the wrong crowd and have them thinking I'll bring her into that." Steven admitted.  
"Steven, you risk your life on a daily basis with immortal rock women. I don't think that's a normal crowd in anyone's eyes," Thean thought about something for a second, "or eye." He reminded Steven.  
"Yeah but her parents are on good terms with my dad and the gems." Steven told him. Connie's ringtone set off. Steven took out his phone and read the new message.  
_'Btw, me and my parents are going to the city to pick up some things, if you want we could hang out.'_  
"Oh no, her and her parents are on their way here. Thean, what should we do?" Steven asked, getting anxious again.  
"Steven, chillax. Just tell her that the gems beat me or something." Thean suggested.  
"I can't lie though." He admitted. "I think I'll just tell her the truth." Steven made it sound like he was making a tough decision.  
"Fine, doesn't matter." Thean yawned.  
_'Actually, it turns out he is a good guy. He even helped defeat the monster fusion.'_ Steven texted her.  
"There, problem solved. Oh wait." He texted one more thing.  
_'Yes, I would like to hang out.'_ He added. Thean looked over to see the message, and somehow Steven could feel his gaze above him. Thean grinned.  
"I knew it, you do have a crush on her." Thean teased.  
"Stop! I told you it's not like that. We're just friends." Steven blushed again.  
"C'mon, I'm just teasin'" Thean said as he 'nuggied' Steven. "Go hang out with your friend." Thean said.  
"What about the lessons?" Steven reminded.  
"We'll still have them. Today's lesson will be on the element of surprise, and how to adapt to the situation." He said.  
"I thought we were learning about people?" Steven asked.  
"We are, but I'll also be testing and honing your skills when you go out on your adventures." He told him. "Now go see your friend, I have to think of some stuff." Thean commanded jokingly to Steven.  
"Yes sir." Steven saluted and began walking to town. Thean went back inside his tent, with a mischievous smile.

A few minutes later, Steven was meeting up with Connie and her parents. They were outside Suitcase Sam's. When she saw him she ran up to him.  
"Steven!" She said excitedly.  
"Hey Connie!" He also ran up to her.  
"How have you been? I got your text from earlier. Was he really a good guy?" She asked.  
"Don't worry about him, he's alright and really cool." He said. The Maheswarans walked up to them.  
"Hello Steven." Mr. Maheswaran said.  
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran." Steven replied politely.  
"I trust you're staying out of trouble." Connie's mom said.  
"As much as my genetics allow me mam." He said jokingly.  
"How's Greg? He still rocking that cherry sweater?" Her dad asked.  
"As a rockstar, my dad rocks any type of clothing, Sir." Steven charmed them. They all giggled at his joke.  
"Well you kids have fun, Connie I need you to be back here when you're done playing with Steven." Connie's mom said.  
"Yes mom." She said happily. "We'll be back before you know it."  
"Steven, you make sure she's ok. Do I make myself clear?" Mr. Maheswaran said, as if threatening him.  
"Crystal as the Gems sir." Steven said seriously.  
"Ok, then off you go-" He was interrupted.  
"Hey Yo! Stevie!" They all turned to see down the street at who called.

"Oh no..." Steven whispered to himself. Walking up to them all was Thean, in very inappropriate attire. He was wearing combat boots with belt buckles along the ankles, had a pair of black pants on, and a shirt with the saying 'Through the Unknown' in red writing. The shirt was ripped from the sleeves down and he had a different eye patch on his eye. This eye patch was black with a red cross-hair. Overall, he looked like he was trying to make a bad first impression. As he reached them, the Maheswarans held onto Connie protectively. Steven looked at Thean with a frown. As if asking, 'what are you doing?!'  
"Whaddup?" Thean asked.  
"Steven who is this?" Connie asked a little worried.  
"Uh..." Steven felt trapped, what could he do?  
"The name's Thean," He reached out his hand, everyone saw it had spiked wrist bands. "I'm Stevens half-brother."


	13. Chapter 13

"My name is Thean," He reached out his hand, everyone saw it had spiked wrist bands. "I'm Stevens half-brother."

Mr. Maheswaran looked at Steven with a frown before masking it with an unsure smile toward Thean.  
"Really now?" He asked as he, reluctantly, shook Theans hand.  
"Heck Yeah! Don't you see the resemblance to Greg?" Thean said with enthusiasm. He turned around and with his thumb pointed at the long hair thay reached to his back.  
"Hmm. Well hair like that is possibly hereditary, depending on the parents." Mrs. Maheswaran said.  
"Don't worry 'bout me. I'm just here to visit my baby brother here." Thean grinned as he shook Stevens hair.  
"Well it was...nice to meet you." Connies dad said as he was thoroughly sure he didn't want her to be anywhere near Thean.  
"I'm gonna talk to him real quick." Steven said as he dragged Thean by the arm a few feet away so that the Maheswarans didn't hear them.  
"What are you doing?!" Steven tried scolding him.  
"I told you earlier didn't I? Today is all about the element of surprise, and how well you can adapt to your situation, so far, you're not doing so well." Thean explained.  
"But why are you making me look bad in front of her?" Steven asked.  
"I'm not trying to make anyone look bad, they just have their own views on how to see others." Thean said wisely.  
"Well I can't have you doing this, tell them you gotta go." Steven frowned at him.  
"Fine." Thean said. They both walked up to the Maheswarans. "Hello again. Listen I know Steven made plans with your daughter, and you must have plans of your own..." Thean stopped for a second and got an idea. "So i will be supervising the two of them." He said confidently. Everyone asked in unison.  
"What?!" "I'm just looking out for my little brother. I just want to make sure that he's hangin' out with good influences."  
He said, almost mocking them.  
"Why I'd never." Began Connies mom. "I can asure you my daughter is the epitome of a good influence. She is smart, polite, well-mannered, and very obedient." She frowned at Thean.  
"Thean..." Steven whispered to him in frustration.  
"I don't doubt it, I just care about what my lil' brother does with his friends, I'm sure you got to know Steven and Greg at some point?" He said.  
"I-" Connie's dad began. But he was at a loss for words, Thean gave out a legitimate excuse, considering his attire. This was how they felt about Steven at first, a little insecure and mostly protective of their daughter. So for the situation to be reversed on them, was unexpected to say the least.  
"I'm just looking out for him." Thean said as a reminder.  
"Hmmm." Connie's mom was thinking about it. She turned to Steven, since she knew him more. "What do you think Steven? Can he be..." She pa, looking at Theans attire one more time. "Responsible?"  
All eyes were on Steven, he tried calming down so as not to give anything away. Then he remembered, 'Today is all about the element of surprise, and how well you can adapt to your situation,' Steven took a deeo breath, as he realized all he had to do was pretend. He smiled.  
"Yes. Thean is very responsible and capable of keeping us safe.  
"Yeah mom, Steven's right." Connie said urgently, not wanting to be taken away from him. Thean smiled at her display of affection and held back a chuckle.  
"Alright then, but we want them back here when they're done playing. Ok?" Mr. Maheswaran said.  
"Cool cool." Thean said in 'slang.'  
"And Connie, be safe, anything happens call the authorities or me." He said.  
"Yes dad. I'll be careful." She said.  
"Ok." He said. "Honey let's get us a suitcase." He said as they both walked inside Suitcase Sam's.

Connie, Steven, and Thean were now left alone.  
"So you're Steven's brother?" Connie asked immediately.  
"Yea yea." Thean said keeping character. She turned to Steven.  
"And you never told me this because?" She asked him suspiciously. Steven thiught of something quickly.  
"The Gems were a better topic." Steven shrugged comically. Steven looked at Thean, with a look that said 'what you gonna do?'  
'Ok, I see how it is.' Thean thought, taken aback by Stevens comment and attitude. He turned to Connie.  
"Yeah, but you should hear the things he says about you." Thean said, with mock threat in his voice. Stevens face said it all, 'you wouldn't.' "'Oh Thean,'"" Thean began dramatically, imitating Steven. "'I've never met a star that shines as brightly as you.'" Thean said as he looked at Steven with a grin. Steven blushed.  
"How do you know?" Steven asked desperately.  
"You're dad told me." Thean said quickly.  
"Aww you said that about me." Connie interrupted them. They both turned to her, and she was blushing.  
"Ye-yeah." Steven grabbed the back of his head in embarassment.  
"You're so sweet." She said. They both looked at each other and Thean saw just how much they made each other smile.  
"Anyway, what are you guys planning to do? I am your sitter for the day so what'll we be doing." Thean said.  
"Oh, well I was kinda hoping to go to Funland with Steven." Connie said. Steven gasped.  
"Really, you wanna go there today? You never wanna go there." Steven said.  
"Well I do today." She said.  
"Great I'll walk you two rascals there." Thean said as he began to walk in that direction. Both Steven and Connie walked behind him, holding hands.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at the entrance to find Mr. Smiley supervising the front gate.  
"Yo Steven how's it hangin' man?" He asked enthusiastic to see him.  
"Hey Mr. Smiley, I've been good."  
"I see you've got your little friend with you today. And how is the missus doin on this fine afternoon?" He asked good naturedly.  
"Pretty good." Connie said politely.  
Mr. Smiley then saw Thean, in punk style attire.  
"And you are?" He asked awkwardly, not used to being casually friendly in front of people he didn't know.  
"Stevens half-brother, Thean." He said.  
"Oh snap. Steven you never told me you have a brother? I didn't even know Greg was popular with the ladies." Mr. Smiley said, half impressed and half surprised.  
"You never asked. Can we have two children tickets and an adult ticket?" Steven asked politely.  
"Sure thing Steven," He said as he pulled three tickets out. "That'll be $18 total." He said. Before Steven could reach into his pocket Thean pulled out the exact amount and handed it over to Mr. Smiley.  
"There you go." Thean said.  
"Thank you very much, and enjoy yourselves, and Steven stay away from the teacups." Mr. Smiley warned.  
"Yes sir." Steven said and they made their way inside.

"So what rides should we get on?" Steven asked.  
"How bout that one?" Connie pointed at a ride that was spinning horizontally whilst goinh up and down. Both Thean and Stevens jaws dropped when they saw the ride.  
"Let's avoid that one. As the responsible adult we need something to build a resistance to nausea, build our way up you know." Thean reminded.  
"Ok," She paused as she saw a stand selling bracelets. "I'll be right back, I'll get us something nice." Connie said as she walked to a nearby booth selling trinkets and antiques.  
"Thean, thanks for paying for the entrance." Steven told him.  
"Why? I paid with your money." Thean said nonchalantly as he looked at the other rides.  
"What? How? I didn't even feel it." Steven frowned at him for what seemed like the tenth time today.  
"That's the point of pick pockets. Speaking of don't worry, I'll pay you back later." Thean said. "You're doing good by the way." Thean admitted.  
"Huh?" Steven asked confusedly.  
"I really thought you were gonna crack under pressure, no gem pun intended." He looked down and smiled at Steven. Steven did so as well.  
"Thanks." As he said that, a group three women around Theans age walked passed them. Theans eye shot up, as one of them in particular got his attention.  
"Steven, I will be right back, don't go on any rides you're too short for." Thean proceeded to walk after the girls. Connie immediately walked up to where Thean was standing after he walked away.  
"Did he leave us unsupervised?" She asked Steven incredulously.  
"I guess, what so you want to do?" Steven asked her, avoiding anything to do with Thean at the moment, right now, he had Connies attention and presence to himself. "He said to only go on the ones we're tall enough to ride." He said.  
"Well...we could go on that one?" She pointed at a ride that spun around in a circle with swings that could fit the two of them.  
"Sure." Steven walked toward the ride and fortunately there was no line.

After Thean got the number of one of the girls, he proceded to keep his distance from the boy and girl. Steven and Connie went on more rides with a lack of a line, some pendulum based, roller coasters, arcade games. All this while Thean kept his eye on them. Connie then suggested they go on the ferris wheel, which they did. Once on, they began to talk.

"Thanks for hanging out today Connie. I really needed this with what's been happening." Steven thanked her.  
"Yeah, of course." Connie said, but her tone dropped as she looked at him seriously. "Steven, I have to tell you something." She began slowly.  
"Sure,, you can tell me anything." Steven said. He felt the atmosphere change with her tone. Connie clenched her hands.  
"I'm moving."


	14. Chapter 14

He felt the atmosphere change with her tone. Connie clenched her hands."I'm moving."

Steven had to blink twice in order for her words to process his mind.  
"What do you mean?" He asked, suddenly beginning to panic.  
"My dad got a new job offering in a different state." She told him, whilst looking away.  
"No you can't what about Beach City? What about me?" Steven asked frantically.  
"Steven I know this hard, but there's nothing I could do. I can't argue against my parents." She faced him, on the verge of tears.  
"Then let me talk to them. Please, I can make them change their mind." He urged, taking her hands in his.  
"You can't Steven, they're already packing up, that's why they were at Suitcase Sam's." She informed him.  
Steven remembered about how they were outside that store earlier. "Besides, this is my dads job, it's not like he can make full change." She said, holding his hands tighter. "Steven this is hard on me too. I really wanna stay here, by Beach City." She exclaimed.  
"That's not fair." Stevens eyes began to water, as well as Connie's. "What can I do? Is there anything that can change their minds?" He asked.  
"Not unless someone is willing to pay for his services in Beach City." She said. This gave Steven hope.  
"That's it, we just need to find someone to hire your dad and your parents won't have to take you away from me- I mean here." He said.  
"It's not that simple Steven. We leave in two days, unless someone can hire him then we'll have to move." She said as a single tear began to fall from her face.  
"Don't worry Connie, I'm a Crystal Gem," He said as his gem glowed, "and we always find a way." His gem then stopped glowing as Connie hugged him tightly.  
"Thank you Steven. For not giving up where I did." She said as her tears began to touch Stevens shirt. They hugged each other for a while until the ferris wheel stopped. Once it did, they were asked by the line attendant to get off.

Thean was waiting for them a few feet away calling someone, while holding a piece of paper with numbers on it. As they approached Thean, they could gear his phone's voice say something.  
_The number you are contacting does not exist, please try another._  
"Seriously? She gave me the wrong number?" He said to himself in a disappointed tone.  
"Who did?" Asked Steven as he came up to him. Thean saw him and Connie.  
"No one important apparently." Thean said as he threw away the piece of paper. "Anyway, are you kids going on another ride, or are you both tired?" Thean asked good naturedly, then he noticed that they had tear stains on their cheeks. His demeanor changed to a serious one. "What happened?" He asked. Connie spoke up.  
"Nothing, we just had a talk. We're ok now though, right Steven?" She squeezed his hand softly. He wiped his eyes with his free arm.  
"Right." Steven confirmed. Thean looked a little suspicious, but decided to drop it.  
"Ok, but you better not be lying to me." Thean said. "It's getting late, Connie we should probably head back to where your parents are." Thean said. The young teenagers' eyes grew as they remembered their situation. But Steven played it off by saying.  
"You're right, we should, it's already late and her parents might be worried." He said.  
"Ok then let's go." Thean said, as he began to walk.  
"Steven what are you doing?" Connie whispered to him.  
"I'm keeping this a secret. I know he'll try do something and it'll just mess up,everything." He explained. "It's better if we just figure this out ourselves." He added. Connie realized he was right.  
"Fine, but we gotta hurry, we only have two days." She reminded him.  
"No prob."

After a while, Connie, Steven, and Thean met up with Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran.  
"Connie are you alright? Was everything ok? Did anything bad happen?" Her dad ran up to her frantically.  
"No dad, we were all safe. Thanks to Thean." She said. Her parents turned to him.  
"'Sup." Thean got into character again, pretending to be nonchalant.  
"Yes, well thank you for watching over Connie." Her mom said. "Connie what do we say." She motioned her daughter to say thank you.  
"Oh, thank you Mr. Universe." She said politely as she bowed to him casually.  
"No problem." Thean said.  
"Well, we must get going, busy schedule for tomorrow." Mr. Maheswaran said. "We'll catch you Universes later." He said.  
"Bye." Said Thean and Steven in unison.  
"Bye." The Maheswarans replied back.

After saying their goodbyes, Connies family drove off back to their respective home, and Steven and Thean were left alone.  
"So, what was up with you wearing all that?" Steven asked, expecting a thorough explanation for his attire.  
"Just wanted to mess with you." Thean said casually as he began to walk back to the tent.  
"Wait. What?! I thought you were testing to see how I did in a situation?" Steven complained. "You said you were testing me to see how well I could keep this up. And I did." Steven frowned.  
"No, I came up with most of the act, you just reacted, slowly mind you. So today wasn't as successful as I thought it would be." Thean said. "We'll work on it though." He said to lift Stevens spirits up. Steven paused for a bit.  
"So what now? Do I tell Connie and her parents the truth about you?" Steven asked.  
"You could've told them anytime. I didn't say you couldn't. In fact you can tell your friend right now. I don't care." Thean said as he kept walking with Steven behind him. Steven was thinking about how he would be able to tell Connie and her parents about Thean. "If I were you, I'd tell them as soon as I could so the lie doesn't build up." Thean said. Steven thought about it again, with what Connie and her parents are going through, it seems that Thean isn't the highest priority right now.  
"I'll tell her, but not now, she's dealing with some stuff." Steven said. Thean turned to look at Steven with a concerned look, before he continued to walk.  
"Just giving out my advice." Thean said. "Hey, don't the gems come back tomorrow?" Thean asked him. Steven gasped.  
"You're right, I'm gonna need their help for something." Steven said. "Wait, are you teaching me something else tomorrow?" He asked.  
"I actually thought about it. And I thought it'd be better if you just had free days when the Gems were here." Thean said.  
"Yes! Thanks Thean." Steven said, as he jumped in the air to 'celebrate.'  
"What are you so excited about?" Thean asked jokingly.  
"Because they're coming back." He responded. "So how did I do on a scale of 1 to 10 for todays lesson?" He asked out of curiosity.  
"Well since it wasn't a serious situation, and they already trusted you to begin with. I'd say...7.4." Thean said.  
"What? But I totally kept character and stuff." Steven said, he was about to tell Thean how he and Connie were planning to keep her family in Beach City, but decided to hold off on it. "Nevermind." He suddenly got an idea. "Thean, do you need a bodyguard?" He asked simply asked him. Thean looked at Steven with an eyebrow raised.  
"Seriously? Steven I am a seasoned fighter. I don't need protection..." Thean stopped mid sentence and thought about something. "In combat at least." He finished. This confused Steven.  
"What's that mean?" He asked innocently.  
"It means what it means. Anyway, why do you ask?" Thean changed the subject.  
"Oh, no reason." Steven decided to drop the subject.  
"That doesn't sound like a question without reasoning behind it." Thean said, making Steven nervous. "Eh, what do I care?" Thean said casually again. This calmed Steven down. Steven tried asking him another subtle question about his and Connies dilemma.  
"So...would you take on another job if it paid more?" He asked him.  
"Maybe, depends on the new job, location, and responsibility I'll be given." Thean responded. "Word of advice Steven, 'The highest bidder wins the best prize.'" Something inside Stevens mind clicked.  
"That's it! Thanks." Steven began to run toward the house.  
"Hey why are you running?" Thean asked at just how unexpectedly fast Steven ran.  
"I know what to do!" Steven yelled.  
Thean just kept walking, confused at what just happened.  
"That kid's weird."


	15. Chapter 15

Darkness. Pure darkness. A shroud of negative reality enveloped a small, frail child. A child, whose heart was nearly devoid of any light. This child looked down at where the ground should be. Tears streaming down his face. Suddenly, a flame could be seen in the distance. The boy ran away from it as, but the farther he ran away from it the bigger the flames got. The boy ran faster and faster. A sound could be heard from the flames. Screams. Agonizing shrieks of terror, fear, and pain. The boy began to panic, as the flames nearly surrounded him. The flames called out to him.  
"Thean! Thean! Thean!"

"Thean!" Thean woke up with sweat pouring down the side of his face. He looked around him, and saw he was in his special tent. There was knocking on one of the doors, Steven was calling him.  
"Just a nightmare." He said to himself. He grabbed a towel and wiped the rest of the sweat off his face. He opened the door to find Steven and the Gems outside. "What's going on?" He asked. Pearl spoke first.  
"We were wondering if you could help us. Steven has a bit of a problem with getting someone a job." Pearl explained.  
"We want to know your opinion on how to go on about this." Garnet continued. Thean looked at them with confusion.  
"What would I know about this?" He asked boringly.  
"We want to know how you were hired." Amethyst said.  
"That's classified." He said quickly. "I cannot give you any information like that until my employer feels comfortable enough to tell you." Thean said 'as a matter of fact'-ly.  
"Well...can you still help us?" Steven piped.  
"Is this about what you asked me yesterday?" Thean asked, referring to his asking of security guards.  
"Yes." Steven replied.  
"What's it all about?" He asked genuinely interested.  
"My friend Connie is moving because her dad has been hired in a different state. He's a private security guard, and I was thinking about looking for people that would hire him in Beach City." Steven explained. "And I was hoping you knew how this worked."  
Thean looked at Steven for a second.  
"Sorry, can't help you today. I have other things to do." He said, before Steven could tell ask him why, Thean closed his door. The Gems frowned at the door, but Steven accepted.  
"Maybe he has things to do too. It's ok though, we could figure out who to hire." Steven then raised his fist in the air. "Crystal Gems...Go!" Steven yelled excitedly and ran off into town.

The rest of the Gems just followed behind him, walking.  
"Do you think someone will hire him?" Amethyst asked.  
"We have to. Connie is an essential part of Stevens life now." Garnet said.  
"She's right. Connue has played a major role in Stevens development. To have her leave him would be like taking 3 steps backwards." Pearl explained, worrying that Steven might feel down if she left.  
"That's why we can't fail. We finally know what that Steven at the very least needs companionship. Connie is the only person he's fused with and we need to keep Steven happy, he's come so far." Garnet said. "We need to find someone to hire her father."

The rest of the day was spent on looking for anyone that would hire Mr. Maheswaran. They've gone to first Mr. Smiley.  
"Sorry I don't really need a security guard. I can defend myself pretty well." He flexed for demonstration.

Next was the Citywalk Fries.  
"Nope, we don't really need protection, we got a hidden counter button that calls the police." Said Mr. Fryman.

Then the Big Donut.  
"Sorry Steven, I wish we could." Sadie said regretfully.  
"But we just can't afford it." Lars said honestly. "We barely get paid ourselves."

Then to the Pizzas.  
"What are you talking about? You already have discount Pizzas here!" Kofi yelled. "Now you want me to pay for security, I'll run out of business for sure." He said with his thick Ghanan accent.

A few hours later, Steven and the Gems were back at the house and have asked almost everyone in town.  
"We asked almost everyone in town!" Steven exclaimed. "Why can't we find someone who'll hire him?" He asked, mostly to himself.  
"We must be doing something wrong. We've obviously been going after the owners of large business buildings. Or at the very least the most popular ones." Pearl pondered. "But they all don't need personal security." As Pearl finished, Garnet stepped up.  
"Wait. That's the thing. We've only been going to the ones that are the most populated." Everyone was confused about what she said. "Think about it like bees. The workers collect, and bring back to the hive, where the honey, or in this case money, is made. However, only part of that money is given to the workers in the hive, but the the one who gets the most of it all is the head of the colony itself. The queen." Garnet said.  
"You're right." Amethyst said in excitement of that logic. "Steven, who's the queen of Beach City?" She asked.  
"Hmm." Steven thought about it. Then a lightbulb turned on in his head. "Mayor Dewey! Thanks Garnet." Steven said as he hugged her. "You're so smart."

In a few moments, they arrived at the front door of his house up in the suburbs of Beach city.  
"Let me talk to him." Steven said asbhe knocked on the door. "Mayor Dewey." He knocked again. "Mayor Dewey." And one final time. "Mayor Dewey." The gems looked at him as if asking him why he had to thay three times. "I got it from a show. The Quantum Theory, you guys might like it." Before they could ask, Buck Dewey answered the door, wearing sunglasses.  
"Oh, hey Steven." He said in his usual cynical mannered voice. "What'chu doing here this late?" He asked.  
"Hi Buck, I wanted to know if you're dad was home. We need to speak to him right away." Steven said.  
"Sorry, he's out of town, but he'll be back tomorrow evening." Buck said, nonchalantly.  
"But- we...uhm...can we call him?" Steven asked as he was beginning to panic. Thisbwas their last chance to find an employer for Connies dad.  
"Actually, he left his Beach city phone here, all the contacts of the citizens in the city are on it, bit he took his business one with him, and I don't know that one. Sorry Steven." Buck apologized and closed the door.

The walk back to the house was silent, and the tension got thicker as Stevens phone rang.  
Did you find a way?  
Steven felt his world become larger, and felt himself get smaller.  
"Steven!" The Gems yelled in unison as he fainted.

Steven was falling from the a cliff, and at the edge of it was Connie, reaching her arms out to him. She was crying. Steven hit the water, and he could feel himself drown, but at the same time breathe. Suddenly, a large, monstrous creature swam up to him and said in a familiar voice.  
"You have failed." She said. "You can't keep her." She mocked. "She leaves because she has to, she leaves because you can't stop her, and she leaves without a single friend." She came closer to Steven. From the same creature, a different, but familiar voices came.  
"Don't listen to her." It was a calmer voice. "I left knowing that I kept my friend safe. But the other one still has a chance." Both voices ceased.  
"So you,want him to keep her the same way you're keeping me?" The harsher one returned. "You want him to chain her up?!" Steven got scared of that accusation.  
"No, he's not chaining her, he's releasing her of a different set of shackles." The calmer one returned. Suddenly, the creature separated into two beings, the larger one dragged to the lower parts of the depths. The smaller, frailer one approached Steven.  
"You saved me. You can still save her."


	16. Chapter 16

"You saved me. You can still save her."  
"Steven!"  
Steven woke up, sweat pouring down his face, and tears from his eyes. He looked around him and saw Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Thean. Each one had a worried expression on them.  
"Give him some room." Thean said as he motioned the Gems to step back. They did.  
"What happened?" Steven asked them.  
"You fainted for like a solid 10 minutes." Amethyst told him. "Are you ok?"  
Steven wiped the sweat off his face, and responded.  
"Yeah, um...I just need a minute." Steven stood up and walked out the door to the balcony of the house.  
"Should we..?" Pearl was about to suggest that they follow him.  
"I'll do it." Thean said as he followed after Steven.  
"But-" Pearl began but Garnet geld her back.  
"It's ok." She said. Pearl hesitated but listened to her anyway.

Steven looked on into the calm ocean as he leaned onto the railing. He wondered what he would tell Connie. He turned to his phone an saw that it still had the message.  
_Did you find a way?_  
What could he possibly tell her after today? He failed. Plain and simple. He told her that as a Crystal Gem he'd find a way to let her stay close to Beach City. And he failed. As he contemplated, a miniature wave crashed onto the sand, snapping him out of his train of thought.  
"Steven." Thean said behind.  
"Ah!" Steven yelped in surprise. "Oh, it's you." Steven noted.  
"Sorry. I came to talk to you about your little situation." Thean said as he walked up next to Steven and leaned on the rail as well, looking at the ocean too. "I know what it feels like to be in it. You feel as though nothing you do will matter, and the outcome you fear the most will happen regardless." Thean said. "But that is the problem. You doubt yourself."  
"What?" Steven asked in surprise.  
"Your fears are solely based on the negative outcomes, and you're not open to the possibility of opportunities. Or at the very least the good things." Thean said as Steven listened in on his confusing ideology. "Think about it. Worst case scenario, she leaves. You have phones, computers, videochat, social networks, etc. Just because she will live far away, it doesn't mean that you have to stop being friends with her." Thean finished.  
"So you're saying I have to let her go?" Steven asked innocently.  
"In a way. Yes, I suppose. But in another, you don't have to. You could still make it work. The question is. Are you willing to put effort into a long distance friendship?" Thean asked, turning to Steven with a look that tested him. Steven thought about it for a while and clenched his fists.  
"Yes. I am willing to make it work. I refuse to let our friendship end!" Steven frowned and yelled in confidence at Thean. This caused Thean to grin, who was satisfied with his answer.  
"Good." He said as he shook Stevens hair a little bit and began to walk down the stairs. "Just make sure your internet connection works." He said playfully.  
"What?!" Steven exclaimed comically.

That night, Steven texted Connie about what Thean told him, without mentioning him. She took it pretty well and saw the sense in his reasoning. They could still be friends even if they were in different states. And she would put just as much effort as him to make it work out. To make it official, Steven said he'd help her pack, and at the very least see each other one more time that wouldn't be in front of a screen.

The next morning, Steven got up early to ask his dad to drive him to Connies house one last time. Steven brought a box covered in wrapping paper and a tag that said "To: Connie." The box itself was approximately two feet by one. Steven made what was inside for her himself. And he planned on giving it to her before she left. When they arrived, Steven asked his dad to stay inside. To which he complied. Outside their home, the Maheswarans had many boxes outside their door was open, no doubt they had a lot more stuff inside that they had to get out. Steven got out of his dads van and went just outside the door where he met with her dad.

"Hey Mr. Maheswaran." Steven greeted him reluctantly. Mr. Maheswaran felt a little nervous as he didn't want to confront Steven at all about this matter.  
"Oh...hey Steven." He greeted awkwardly. "What brings you here?" He tried to play it off. Steven smiled in sadness.  
"It's ok. I know you guys are moving and already accepted it. I just need to talk to Connie." He told him right off the bat.  
"Oh, well she's up in her room." He said. "And thanks Steven, you handled this more maturely than I anticipated you would." Mr Maheswaran admitted. Steven nodded to him and walked up the stairs to Connies room.

Connie was sitting on her bed, looking at pictures of them together on her phone. She turned to see him.  
"Steven!" She yelled excitedly as she ran up to hug him, both of them blushed. "You came." She said as she let go of him. "Thanks so much for coming here. It means a lot to me." She said as she got teary-eyed.  
"You mean a lot to me too, Connie." He smiled. His eyebrows theb shot up. "Oh, I got you a present." Steven said as he gave her the box with her name on it.  
"Really?" She asked happily.  
"Yeah, something to help you out in your tennis games." He said. As she unwrapped the box and opened, she saw that it was a tennis racket.  
"Oh Steven." She began, but he stopped her.  
"Before you say anything, let me tell you about it. The Gems helped me make it, its made from a quebracho branch we got from one of our missions, Pearl helped me bent it and she also helped me put the strings on it. Which are made of Vectran strings." He then pointed to the strings that looked like they were spay painted yellow on certain parts of them. "And Amethyst helped me put my star on both sides." Steven finished. Connie was silent for a moment as she stared at the racket.  
"Steven I love it!" She proclaimed as she hugged him again. "Thank you so much, this is..." She was tearing up a little bit. "It's perfect." She said as she placed her hand on his cheek. "Oh, um, I got you something too." She said as she pulled her hand back. She reached over to her nightstand. She grabbed a bracelet that glowed a mint-green neon, and handed it to him. "I saw it when we were at Funland and knew it was perfect to give you." She placed around his wrist. Steven looked at it as if checking the time on a watch.  
"I love it." He said and hugged her. "Thanks Connie." He said. She hugged him back. "I'm gonna miss you." He said.  
"I'm gonna miss you too." She replied. They separated and both sat on her bed, looking at the doorway. "Can you promise me that you'll tell me about your adventures?" She asked. Steven nodded. Both their hands were laying on the bed.  
"Yes, can you promise to tell me about more of your books?" He asked her in return. His hand was on top of hers.  
"I'll tell you all about them." She said. Both were now facing each other, and their heads were leaning into each other. Both of them were closing their shutting their eyes, their lips a few centimeters apart.

MAY-YOR DEW-WEY.

They moved their heads away from each other as the all too familiar slogan sounded outside Connies house.  
Both Steven and Connie ran to the front of the house to see what he was doing outside. They stayed by the stairs as they saw Mayor Dewey talking to Mr. Maheswaran. At first they couldn't hear what they were saying, but then, they saw her dad's face go from confused, to shocked, to happy. Mr. Maheswaran began to shake Mayor Dewey's hand rapidly and thanking him non stop. He then ran inside and saw Connie.  
"Connie, good news!"


	17. Chapter 17

_"Connie, good news!"_  
Mr.,Maheswaran said as he approached her. "Mayor Dewey wants to hire me as his personal body guard."  
He said excitedly. Both Connie and Steven were confused and relieved at the same time.

"But how? I thought he was out of town." Steven mentioned. Mayor Dewey stepped inside the house and went to answer Stevens question.  
"I was, but I got home earlier this morning and my boy told that you came last night for something." The mayor took out his phone, presumably his Beach City one. "And being the cool mayor I am, I checked FaceSpace as soon as I got home, and to my surprise everyone was talking about how the Gems and you were going around town asking people to hire Mr. Maheswaran." He explained his side of the story. "So when I realized that he was a security guard I just had to hire him." Mayor Dewey said with triumph. "Especially since last week my previous guards turned tail when my sons' shirt hit me. Terrible service if you ask me." He finished. Steven grabbed the back of his head, thankful that he didn't see him the day he stopped Buck from using his 'Guitar Dad' T-shirts.  
"And the paycheck is double what it was from my last client." Mr. Maheswaran threw it out there. "Mayor Dewey, I promise that I won't disappoint." He said excitedly.  
"I sure hope not like the last guys." Mayor Dewey said as he chuckled.  
"So does that mean we can stay in Beach City?" Connie asked to be sure one last time and that this was all real.  
"Yes Connie, we don't have to leave." Her dad said giving her a smile.  
"Oh daddy!" Connie got excited and ran up to her dad to hug him.

Mr. Maheswaran was usually not one to receive hugs from his daughter that much, so he savored this moment while it lasted.  
"I trust that this will secure your vote for me in the next election?" Dewey asked sarcastically.  
"Oh you bet!" Mr. Maheswaran said, shaking his hand again. Mr. Maheswaran, went to tell his wife the big news. Steven took this moment to talk to Mayor Dewey.  
"Thanks, Mayor Dewey, you have no idea how much this means to me and Connie." Steven thanked him.  
"No problem Steven. But I might have understanding of certain things." Mayor Dewey said the last sentence a little too quickly.  
"What was that?" Steven asked innocently.  
"Nothing, just take the time to appreciate this. You have no idea how lucky you are." Mayor Dewey said. "Now back to politics! I'll send a schedule to her father's mailbox and who knows? Maybe he can afford a house actually in Beach City." And with that, the Mayor went back to his 'van.'

Steven and Connie were alone for one more time before Greg walked inside to ask what the Mayor was doing in there house. Connie explained everything to him and they all, ironically, unpacked their belongings in the house. When everything was put back into place, the Universe's decided it was time to go. Steven and Connie walked outside first whilst the parents were still talking.

"So...I guess we'll be staying in Beach City after all." She said with a blush and her hands were behind her back.  
"Yeah, isn't great? We'll still be able to see each other." Steven blushed to as his hand scratched the back of his neck. "So about the presents...I think you should keep yours because it fits you, like you're good at tennis, and its also really strong so you could bop monsters with it and stuff, not that you couldn't do it on your own or any, but I just wanted you to feel safe and stuff..." Steven was mumbling his sentences because he just kept thinking of how close he was to losing her. Connie giggled at how he was rambling. So she stepped up to his cheek and  
_Mwah!_  
Stevens rambling ceased all at once as he realized what just happened. His whole face was red as he slowly turned to Connie. Who was giving him a cute toothy grin. Stevens eyes sparkled like stars at how pretty she looked as well at what she had done.  
"Text me." She said and simply skipped back to her house, but Steven could hear her mumble a song.  
" Let me drive my van into your heart ." And before she walked in, she looked at him one more time, blushed, and smiled. Right then Greg walked outside and began to get in the van.

"C'mon Stu-ball lets go home." He told his son. Steven however was still shocked at what Connie did.

The drive back home, Steven felt like he was floating on a cloud, similar to his mother's room. He couldn't stop playing the whole moment in his head or touching the cheek that Connie's lips skimmed. He felt so happy at that moment. When they arrived outside the temple, Steven got out the van and thanked his dad for driving him to Connies house and back. Greg drove back to his car-wash and Steven walked up the stairs of the temple and just as he was about to go in he heard a familiar voice.  
"So how'd it go?" Thean asked. Steven looked around for him bit couldn't see him. "Up here." He said. Steven looked up and saw Thean sitting on the edge of the roof looking down at Steven.  
"Oh, Thean, it went well. Apparently Mayor Dewey hired him at the last minute and she'll be staying." Steven smiled in happiness.  
"Really now? Good for you." Thean jumped down in front of Steven.  
"So what's today's lesson going to be about?" Steven asked.  
"Well, you already passed it." Thean admitted.  
"Huh?" Steven asked in confusion.  
"I was testing you to see just how willing you were able to let Connie go. You were trying to stop the inevitable and failed. So you accepted the situation, and not only did you accept it, but you embraced it and were ready to change with and for her. All in all, you showed acceptance in knowing when to bail, but you prolonged it as long as you could and apparently fortune favors you for it. Congrats." Thean finished. Steven smiled knowing he did something right unknowingly.  
"So what now?" He asked. "The Gems left didn't they?"  
"Yup, they'll be back in another two days." Thean said. "As for now, you can do what you want in the house I have somethings to do." Thean said.  
"Cool! Thanks, Thean." Steven said as he ran inside to text Connie.


	18. Chapter 18

For the remainder of the week, Thean was helping Steven with regular exercise routines. Among these exercises were jumping jacks, push-ups, long walks up to the hill, and lifting weights suited for both of them. However, today's particular exercise didn't include any of that.

"I am going to test your concentration of your bubble." Thean told him.  
"What?" Steven asked confused.  
"Well, we need to not only focus on your physical power, but your mental one as well. Every warrior is balanced in mind and muscle. You can't use one without the other so I want you to bring up your shield and let me attack it." Thean explained.  
"Oh, well that makes sense." Steven agreed and summoned his bubble by clapping his hands twice. "Ok, I'm ready, wait what if it breaks in one of your attacks?" Steven asked at the last minute.  
"Let's hope I don't hit you then." Thean said as he charged at Steven with his sword drawn.  
Steven was confident that his bubble would be strong enough to either break his sword or push him back. To his surprise, the bubble was pushed back three feet.  
"What?" Steven exclaimed as the thought never occurred to him that Thean could even push his bubble back.

Thean suddenly pulled another blade, it resembled Rose's sword only it had the color scheme of an actual earth sword. The blade was single edged but part of the flat on the backside was serrated. Similar to his first double edged sword. However, the new blade resembled more of a machete, and looked slightly heavier than the double edged one. Thean rushed again and sliced at the bubble with both blades. Pushing it back further into the beach. Steven was concerned now at Theans physical strength, which caused him to lose confident and focus, thus his bubble was weakening. Thean used both swords and thrust them at the same time and it caused the bubble to pop and Steven to be pushed back.  
"Wow! I had no idea you were that strong." Steven said in amazement.  
"Hmm," Thean pondered. "I think I scared you too easily and may have caused you to loosen your ability to focus. Let's try you bubbling me and see if I can escape." Thean suggested.  
"Ok." Steven agreed. "Wait, I can do that?" He asked.  
"Let's find out." Thean stepped back a little bit and waited for Steven to bubble him. "Alright, try to hold me in here, or I will came at you." Thean said and without warning he dashed at Steven with athletic speed. Steven, out of instinct and quick-thinking, bubbled Thean in place before he reached him.

"Woah! It worked." Steven said. He wanted to see Theans reaction and gain some acknowledgment from him. But he saw Thean begin to panic inside the bubble. Thean dropped his weapons and reached for his throat, as if he were suffocating. His eyes began to water and he fell. Steven panicked. "Thean! Hold I'll get you out!" Steven approached the bubble and touched it to make it disappear. As soon as it did, Thean, with blinding speed, grabbed Steven by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up. Steven looked nervous. Thean simply chuckled.  
"I did say I would come at you if I got out." He said. Steven didn't feel threatened anymore but he still frowned at Thean.  
"No fair, you faked an emergency!" Steven whined comically.  
"Hey at least we know that I can get out of you bubble as well as break it." Thean said jokingly. Steven still frowned in annoyance. "Don't get mad," Thean chuckled. "Little hater." He laughed at his own joke.  
"Un-hand him!" Yelled a familiar voice that was getting closer from a distance. Thean didn't have time to react as Garnet simply shoved him back several feet on his back. Steven fell, but Garnet managed to grab him before he hit the ground.

"Are you alright Steven?" Garnet asked.  
"Yeah, I'm fine, but we were just training." Steven informed her. Thean got back up as he grabbed the back of his head in disbelief.  
"What the heck was that?" He asked in annoyance. "Why did you do that?"  
"Because you looked like you were threatening him. So I took action." She said. Thean frowned one more time before he accepted her explanation.  
"Whatever, just let me continue training him." He said impatiently. Garnet didn't like his attitude.  
"No." She said.  
"What?" Both Steven and Thean said in unison.  
"You tested Steven for a while now. Now it's time for us to test you." She said and, seemingly, out of nowhere Pearl and Amethyst walked next to Garnet.  
"What?" Thean asked. You gitta be kidding me." He said. "Why do I meed to prove myself? I already saved you from that monster...thing." He said referring to the day he officially introduced themselves. Pearl spoke up this time.  
"That doesn't prove anything. All we know from you is that someone paid you and that you use dirty tactics to win fights." Pearl said in an accusing manner.  
"I mean, yeah how else am I supposed to fight others? Especially super powered sentient rocks?" He asked with sarcasm.  
"You fight like a man! Or are you chicken?" Amethyst mocked him as she shape-shifted her head into a chicken and began to squawk. This made Thean chuckle.  
"You know, out of all of you, I really thought the one that would do anything bird related would've been Pearl." Thean said as he grinned. Amethyst chuckled at what he said as she transformed her head back to normal.  
"Oh that is it. I will make you eat those words." Pearl got irritated at that last remark. "Each of us will test you beyond the limits of your physical and mental skills." She made a hologram of three "challenges" that they all had made for him in the temple. "No human can possibly beat any of these challenges designed by each of us."

_Thirty minutes later, outside the temple door._

"How is this possible?!" Pearl exclaimed as her and the rest of the group stood outside the temple door. Thean had just stepped out from it with scorch marks on parts of his suit, some of it was torn and some of where his skin was exposed were crimson stains and scorch marks. Some black smoke was coming off his body, signifying that he was on fire for a while. In one of his hands he held his machete-like sword, whilst his free hand held onto his rib. He was panting, but he took a deep breath, grinned, and as epic as he could said,  
"'S'that all you got?"


	19. Chapter 19

_"'S'that all you got?"_

Thirty minutes, just outside the temple door.

Thean was inside the house but still outside the temple. He had his body armor, that included a helmet that matched the rest of his suit. His hair was neatly tucked inside the back of the suit so as not to disrupt him in battle. He had both swords sheathed on his back, two pistols at his hips, knives without handles and dynamite sticks tucked in one bandoleer, and another one with ammunition clips attached to it. Thean looked very menacing, but at the same time attentive.  
"Your test will consist of three different rooms with different purposes designed to prove your combat skills, your adapting to a situation, and overall endurance." Pearl explained. "You can bring as many of your weapons as you like. You'll need them." She mumbled that last part.  
"And don't expect it to be rigged or anything , we made these trials to test if you can handle what we do." Amethyst said.  
"You will not be monitored when inside. But you will need to beat each challenge in order to advance to the next one." Garnet told him as she wanted him to pass to be sure he could handle just as much as them.  
"No sweat. I've been through worse." Thean remarked. "I'll show you just what humans are made of." With that, Thean walked inside the temple doors.  
"I am pretty sure they're composed of organic matter." Pearl mentioned.  
"Good luck Thean!" Steven yelled at him, Thean gave him the 'thumbs-up' before the doors closed.

Thean looked around in the first room, it was a purple one with square tiles on the floor, walls and ceiling. As soon as he stepped further inside, some tiles surfaced into poles shorter than him. The poles had tubes that stuck out and were pointing at him. Thean realized what was going to happen and quickly moved out of the way. Darts shot out from the tubes of the pole, but when they missed Thean, more poles with tubes surfaced from the tiles behind him to catch the blown darts and blow them back again in Theans direction. Overall, it was smart to that the darts wouldn't go to waste if they missed and could be reused. Thean was not so happy about this as he had to keep dodging the darts. He wondered about how he was going to get out this room. He kept dodging every dart, until one him in the back of his shoulder, he cringed at the the pain, but suddenly the dart exploded in a loud flash that disoriented his sight and hearing. He realized, however, that he was now prone to more darts so he forced himself to keep dodging blindly, which resulted in more darts hitting him. He forced his eye to open up and check his surroundings. He got sick of the poles and took out one of his pistols and shot it where the tubes stuck out. The entire structure of the pole broke and he realized that they could be broken. Thean suddenly gained new confidence as he realized he found a way to beat the challenge.  
"My turn." He said as he located the position of every other pole and shot it. Occasionally, he took out one of his swords and cut down the dart blowing mechanisms.

When he was done, he pulled off all the darts on him and walked to the door that lead to the next room. The door opened up and a cute little tune went off, signifying he beat the challenge.

"Cute tune." He said as he walked through it to the next room.

As soon as he was passed the doorway, the door behind him locked. He looked at the new room and saw that there wasn't an actual floor but rather many pillars with empty space in between. He jumped onto one of the pillars and balanced on it. They were straight and firm so he knew he could just make his way to the other end. He paused for a second because this all seemed too easy. From the ceiling, he saw several holo-Pearls, armed with her signature spear, looking directly at him. He quickly took out his double edged sword and as soon as he did, all the Pearl copies jumped directly at him. He jumped to another pillar, just missing their blades. He tried balancing his weight so as not to actually off. He turned around and saw that the holo-Pearls were standing on individual pillars, perfectly balanced and ready to attack. Suddenly, they all began to swiftly jump onto the pillars in front of them and made their way toward Thean.

"Aw man..." He exasperated. The first one that came at him was cut off at the legs, the next he stabbed through the abdomen. He dashed backward to the pillar behind him in time to avoid a spear thrust. He looked around himself to see of there was a way to stop them permanently. He kept moving onto different pillars whilst avoiding their attacks , but there was a change in their patterns as they began to throw the spears at him. He avoided as many as he could, and as he was in midair, one of the spears grazed his rib, just missing the bone, but still doing the damage. He would've been surprised at the cutting power of the spear, if he wasn't worried about the pain or falling into the emptiness of space between the pillars. He still managed to get onto the next pillar but tripped and fell. He let go of his sword and stuck onto one of the pillars. He quickly grabbed the edge of next pillar with one arm as his other one was holding his cut over his rib. He looked up and saw many of the holo-Pearls looking down with their spears aimed at him. They prepared to thrust downward at him.

Thean thought quickly and where his arm was holding his cut reached into a pouch on his hip and threw a smoke pellet up at the holo-Pearls. Distracting them temporarily. He then grabbed onto the leg of the one in front of him and pulled her into the empty space, whilst pulling himself up. As soon as he was back on top of the pillar, the surrounding holo-Pearls thrust their spears at him. He jumped in place and landed on a makeshift platform where their spears missed. Thean jumped again, this time forward, away from them and took out one of his dynamite-hilted knives, lit the fuse, and threw it at the center of where the Pearls were. There was a loud explosion that pushed him into the wall. All the pillars collapsed and hit what Thean guessed was the bottom of the empty space, which wasn't that deep since all the fallen pillars laid out amd created an uneven ground that he could walk on. He spotted his sword sticking into one of the pillars, he walked up to it and pulled it out and walked to where the next door was. The cute little tune went off again.

"And that's how it's done." He said to himself as he held onto the cut on his rib. "I really need to bring a small aid kit with me for this kind of stuff.

The next room was all white, he saw the last door and made his way to it. However, as soon as he stepped into the center of the room, colors began to emerge. The whole room turned into an environment that he was too familiar with. The room became a man-made tunnel, with lanterns lit up on the ceiling. The temperature was intense, it was easily over a hundred degrees. He was sweating all over his body, he wanted to take off his vest but couldn't. The sound of metal clicking against stone could be heard on both ends of the tunnel. Thean began to panic, he knew exactly what this place was.

_Outside the door with The Crystal Gems._

"Garnet, are you sure you needed to use mom's room to create your challenge?" Steven asked.  
"I want to know if he can face his fears and only her room could do that. And I designed it so that if he does conquer them, the door would open and he'd be able to walk out. If it's too much for him the room will spit him out. We just need to wait." Garnet told him.  
"Yes, don't worry Steven, the room is designed to spit out the trainee if he is about to fail. Which should be any minute now." Pearl added as she looked at the door, waiting for Thean to be spat out, specifically from her challenge.  
"That's not what happened with me." Steven mumbled low enough that none of them heard it.  
"Shh! The door's opening!" Amethyst pointed out excitedly.  
"How is this possible?!" Pearl exclaimed in shock.  
Thean stepped out.  
"S'that all you got?" He managed to say before fainting.

* * *

Quick note. Another thank you for you guys keeping up with this story, really enjoy your guy's feedback. I'm gonna be away for finals starting monday, but don't worry a new chapter should be up before Sunday, and boy is that chapter going to be intense. A lot of thanks to you guys, you really do motivate me to continue writing this story. Please continue to Read &amp; Review


	20. Chapter 20

"He's waking up!" Amethyst exclaimed as Thean was opening his eye.  
He looked around him to see that he was back in the temple. His eye shot open as he sat up quickly.  
"What happened?" He asked. He then remembered that he got cut on his rib and looked down, only to see that there wasn't even a scratch. He was naked only from the top half of his body. "Where's my scar?".  
"We healed it." Garnet said.  
"Magic?" Thean asked.  
"Hm." Amethyst confirmed.  
"Thean! You actually made it!" Steven yelled in excitement. "We thought the room would spit you out. But you came out of it all cool." Steven praised Thean for beating the challenges.

Thean just stayed quiet, but suddenly the memories of the room came back to him like a flash. He stood, with an enraged demeanor.  
"Who designed that last room?" He asked threateningly. Steven mood went from excited to nervous, the Gems were confused at why Thean was angry.  
"Listen Thean, the last room was designed to test your willpower in a situation that knew your deepest fears." Pearl explained, trying to keep the situation under control. "There's no need for anger I'm sure whatever trivial thing you were afraid of in there was meaningless." Pearl said in an informative way that came out as condescending. Thean's pupil constricted, as his eyebrows dipped, making him appear even angrier.  
"Trivial? Meaningless?" He said in a low voice that demanded explanation. Garnet, Amethyst, and Steven now looked worried at what Pearl would say next.  
"Of course. I've read all about the phobias of human beings recorded in history and statistics on what the majority of people fear the most. Spiders, the paranormal, clowns, snakes, heights, enclosed spaces. And those are just to name a few. I'm sure any of those you encountered in that room are nothing to get upset about." She said as if she were speaking on his behalf. Thean looked disgusted at how arrogant what she said was.  
"You have no idea what you're talking about." He said.  
"Yes I do. I read all about it in your earth books." She responded.  
"Really?! I guess in all the time you were here on Earth, you know more about humanity than a human being." Thean said spitefully, and the room got quiet.  
"What are you trying to say?" Pearl asked as she frowned at him. "I am much older than you, and anything that you talk about, I will most certainly know about it." She said with conviction as she approached him. "You can't tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about." She stated.  
"But you can to _me_?" He asked with spiteful sarcasm. Pearl realized the fault in her argument.  
"Wha-" she began but Thean cut her off, as he stood up.  
"You think that because you read about human psychology you automatically know every person's experience? You don't know what I'm afraid of! Those fears you mentioned are nothing compared to what I've been through!" Thean said, and at this point him and Pearl were close enough to hurt each other.  
"Stop right now." They turned to Garnet, who was looking down at them both. "Thean, I am the one who set up the final room, if you're mad about that, talk to me. And Pearl, stop instigating." She said with finality. They both looked at her. Pearl with more awe than Thean. But Thean knew not to take Garnet lightly, as she was the most dominant of them all.  
"I don't care who made the room. But I will not tolerate that it brought up something I am not comfortable with." Thean calmed down. "You said that it wasn't monitered?" He asked Garnet.  
"Yes. We saw nothing while you were in there." Garnet said.  
"Ok then." Thean said. He walked to the counter where his torso armor piece and weapons were and picked them up. "I'll be taking my leave now. Thanks for healing me." He said and walked out the door. When he did, it was silent. Steven debated whether or not he should go see if he was ok.

"Pearl, you can't talk that lightly about fear to humans." He heard Garnet tell Pearl. "Especially one like him." She said. Pearl wanted to argue, but she knew that Garnet was right. She began to worry about going too far with Thean.  
"What kind of things did he see in there?" Asked Pearl to herself.  
"Whatever it was, he must have experienced it before." Garnet answered for her. There was another moment of silence.  
"We should see of he's alright." Steven broke the silence. "We can't leave him like that." He said as his only point.  
"Steven, I don't think that we have the right to do that." Pearl said. "You should go though, he probably doesn't want to see us right now after that." She explained.  
"That's why we have to talk to him. You need to tell him that you didn't intend to make him feel insulted, or feared." Steven explained, wanting everyone to be ok with each other. The Gems couldn't really argue with his logic. And with that, they walked outside to talk to him.  
From the balcony, they saw Thean sitting in the sand looking at the stars in the sky.

"Let me talk to him first." Steven said as he walked down to the beach where Thean was sitting. As Steven approached him, Thean spoke up, knowing Steven was behind him.  
"I'm sorry I overreacted." He said whilst still looling at the stars. "I just hate that last room so much." He told him.  
"What was in it?" Steven asked with the purest of intentions.  
"My past." Thean admitted. "Steven. Do you want to hear it?" Thean asked him. Deep down hoping that he didn't have to, but further than that knew he had to tell him. Steven was debating the whether or not to make Thean explain anything, he looked like he would be in pain explaining, but would he in even more pain bottling up inside him.  
"Yes."


	21. Chapter 21

"I was six years old when it happened. I lived in a small reservation that had no plumbing, power, or a functioning monetary system. We barely had anything that could grow, much less eat. But we managed. We shared what little we had with one another." Thean smiled at a memory of all the small feasts his family had. "It was built in a jungle, and the only homes we had were made of straw and branches. Some of our clothes were nicely donated from foreign charities. I remember that I had this simple yellow shirt that I dirtied all the time when I played. The only way to clean and wash our clothes was with the water from a nearby river." Thean paused. "A little over ninety people lived there. I lived with my mom and dad." Thean took a moment to remember what they looked like. "I get my eyes-sorry, eye from my dad, and attitude from my mom. My hair back then was mix of both of theirs, although short at the time. My dad and mom didn't have jobs, like many of the residents, so they did what they could to keep us well fed amd foraged outside the reservation for berries, fruits, and sometimes fish in the river." Thean smiled again.  
"So where was the reservation?" Steven asked. Thean looked at him.  
"To be honest, I don't really remember what the name of the countries I've been in were called. We weren't really informed." Thean explained. "Anyway, my parents were great, my dad would tell me stories of his dad, and my mom always tried to fix my hair, she said it was the best feature I inherited from her. She also taught me to climb trees. Can you believe I climbed my first tree when I was four?" Thean asked jovially.  
"Wow." Steven exclaimed.  
"I would stay up in trees for hours just looking down at my reservation and beyond it and wondered what layed beyond the fences." Thean's smile dropped to a frown. "I was going to find out that bad things were going to come to our reservation instead."

"One day, many trucks began to enter the reservation. And not in a formal way, but they just came in fast, without warning. I remember a man coming out one of them. He wore a white expensive suit, sunglasses. He told us that he bought the reservation and basically all the residents counted as his property." Thean paused and looked at the sky again.  
"Whatever living conditions we lived in until that point, I would've traded it for what that man had in store. From the trucks came many other men, all of them were heavily armed and they just went around destroying our houses, leaving only a few standing. They seperated all the men by force from the women, including my mom and dad. They beat him with the butt of their guns because he didn't want them to separate us." Thean gripped the sand as hard as he could. "The white suited man told us that our reservation was a heavily enriched gold site that he intended to mine as much as possible. So he gave all the men pickaxes to mine for gold, and all the women were put in a single solitary hut that the white suited man decided to stay in." Thean paused again. "Me and my dad hardly saw my mom when she was taken in there. All I know is that she was in there the whole time, and I had no chance of being able to save her because of how it was always guarded. For five long years we mined the entire reservation. We didn't have a hut or bed to sleep in, so we were forced to sleep on the cold, hard ground. At night, all kinds of insects would crawl on our bodies and sting us. I was bitten so hard by something one night that I ran to the river to lose it in the water, and I got a fever the next day. Everyone worked everyday, and those that couldn't work anymore were disposed of." Thean let go of the sand in his grip. "I remember taking out my frustrations on the mines by picking at them as hard as I could. So hard that at on point the pick end broke off. I kept that end and hid from the guards." Thean closed his eye, but kept his head up toward the sky. "When the last bit gold was taken out of the cave, there was no use for us anymore. And the man in the white suit didn't want to take the chance to let that we tell others what happened if they left." Thean opened his eye in a frown. "So they got rid of everyone. I tried so hard to look for my mom and dad, and I did. They told me they loved me so much." Thean remembered to the last thing his mother told him.

_"Thean." His mom began. "We love you no matter what." She sobbed a bit, before smiling. "I wish we could see you grow into a man and see how your hair turns out." Her and his dad hugged him for the last time._

"And they got the attention of some of the guards to give me a head start in the jungle." Thean looked at Steven. "So I ran."

* * *

_Run Boy Run! This world is not meant for you._

An eleven year old Thean was running through the jungle, pushing branches and tall grass out of his way. He heard two guards following him.

_Run boy run! They're trying to catch you._

Thean kept running, even if he heard the gun fire. He slid, he ducked, he and zig-zagged through the trees to avoid being hit. The bullets just barely missing him.

_Run boy run! Running is a victory._

He saw an open field and kept running and in the distance saw a part of the jungle as an entire thicket where if he reached, he could lose the men behind him.

_Run boy run! Beauty lies behind the hills._

He knew the men were only a few yards away from him. He guessed that they were out of bullets, because if they weren't, they would have had a clear shot at him.

_Run boy run! The sun will be guiding you._

He was out of breath and the men were very close to him. Thean managed to reach the thicket and for a moment lost the men. He quickly climbed up one of trees as silently as he could. From below he saw the men, and something in him clicked, all the anger he had built up for five years crashed into his head, he pulled out the broken pick that held onto, and jumped at them.

_Run boy run! They're dying to stop you._

He managed to kill one of the men by stabbing him. But he was defenseless from the other man. The man seized Thean by the neck and pressed him as hard as he could against the ground.

_Run boy run! This race is a prophecy._

Thean struggled for air as he felt thumbs press against him throat. He tried to push the mans hands away from him with all the force he could muster, to no avail. Thean's face was turning purple and his vision was getting dark. From his peripherals, Thean saw a branch by his head, he reached it, grabbed it, and hit the man on his temple. The man let go and was fazed, but Thean kept striking him.

_Run boy run! And disappear in the trees._

After that, Thean kept running as far and fast as he could, even if no one was chasing him anymore.

_Tomorrow is another day._

Later that night, Thean stopped for a moment, sat down and put his head in his knees. And just to let out all his tears and his screams. He hated his life, and the events that happened for five years.

_And you won't have to hide away._

Suddenly, in the light of the moon, he saw a vision. He saw a man clad in black and dark blue, close-fitting armor. With long rough hair, a black eye patch over his left eye. The man smiled at Thean and helped him up and both began running again.

_You'll be a man boy._

The man as running slightly ahead of Thean, who was determined to run past the vision.

_But for now it's time to run, it's time to run!_

* * *

"For a whole week I kept running, and eventually I came across a town. As soon as I did, I fainted. Then I woke up in a hospital and I was treated for an entire week. I had things I didn't even know I had." Thean reached up to his eye patch on his left eye. "Like a branch stuck in my eye." Thean looked back up at the sky. Steven was felt sorry for Thean. He wished he could do something to make him better.  
"What happened after that?" He asked Thean.  
"After that, I spent a bunch of my life on doing things that I find myself asking if I regret doing them. I took lives I viewed as evil and got paid for it, and sometimes I did it for free because some weren't worth anything." Thean just let it out. "I was later found by a group who did similar things, just with different means and ends. And then I was assigned here." He told him. Steven looked down at the sand and took a moment to be thankful of his own life.  
"I sometimes envy you Steven. I don't know whats worse. To live not knowing your mother, or to know the love of one and have it ripped away from you and to miss her everyday." Thean sighed. Steven looked at Thean for a second before he put his hand on his shoulder.  
"Well...I think it's better that you got to experience that kind of love at all." Steven said wisely. This made Thean tear at his emotions. Steven was right. He let tears flow from his eye. Thean bit his lower lip and whilst still looking at the stars, took a hold of Steven's hand and held it tight.

(Play Steven Universe-I'm still here)  
After a while, Thean stopped crying and looked towards the house where the Gems were waiting. Both him and Steven walked towards them. Pearl and Garnet apologized to Thean, and he in return apologized for his outburst. Thean got better acquainted with the Gems. He learned about them, and they about him. They all told him about their lives with Steven, and he opened up more to them. Steven was glad that they were getting along really well with one another. They talked on the balcony until morning and they all stopped to admire the sun rise. They all took the time to appreciate being able to see it themselves. And Steven took his phone out to take a picture of them all, huddled with the sunset in the background, as the reminder of when Thean and the Gems were finally able to get to know each other properly.


	22. Chapter 22

For the rest of the week, everything was back on schedule. The Gems left for two days to find Peridot, Thean would teach Steven more about what he knew. And Steven would hang out with Connie while Thean trained in his tent. On this particular day, however, Thean decided to let Steven go for the day to have fun.  
"Why?" Steven asked, actually eager to learn more. "I'm doing so good already, look." Steven flexed as a puny bump could be seen jumping on his arm. "I'm growing biceps." He said half hubristically. Thean chuckled at his tiny formed muscles.  
"That you are Steven, but today, you could do whatever you want." Thean said, only to receive a suspicious look from Steven. "What?" He asked.  
"Last time you told me that you almost ruined my image to Connie's parents." Steven reminded him. Theans memory connected the dots as he burst out laughing.  
"Oh Yeah! I can't believe they actually fell for that getup! Oh man! That was the stupidest thing ever!" Thean laughed. Steven frowned as his face became red with embarrassment. Theans laughter died down. "But in all seriousness, don't worry Steven. It's ok, I'm just going to hang out with your dad, probably help him wash cars." Thean said.  
"Oh, ok then." Steven accepted it as Thean gave him bus fare. "Oh, thanks Thean." Steven said.  
"And remember, if a stranger comes up to you looking suspicious, bubble yourself ok." Thean told him.  
"Alright! Thanks Thean." Steven ran off to the bus stop that went to Connie's house.

Thean decided to change into more casual wears to help with the car wore black tattered Jean shorts that reached just above his knees, a read t-shirt, and black sneakers. When he got there, Thean looked for Greg.

"Mr. Universe!" He shouted casually. "I gave Steven the day off. I was wondering if I could help out with the car wash." Thean looked around more, until he saw Greg sleeping in the back of his van. The back door was open and Greg was snoring. Greg woke up suddenly, making a snort as he did so.  
"Hu-What!" Greg said half-awake. He looked up to see Thean. "Oh, it's you, Thean. Need something?" Greg said tiredly.  
"I was just going to ask if you needed help here, I gave Steven the day off." Thean explained. "Do you sleep on your own job? What's your boss gonna say?" Thean asked.  
"I am my boss and business is slow as usual. But you can help me with some stuff in the van." Greg insisted as he got out. As Thean looked inside he was surprised to see everything in there.  
"Huh, I never knew this many things could fit in a van." Thean quipped. "So what exactly are we gonna do. Organize?" He asked.  
"Yeah pretty much. If you see something you like, let me see it and I might let you keep it." Greg said as he began to pull things out. Thean dug in to check for some stuff.  
"Thanks Mr. Universe." Thean said politely.  
"Please, call me Greg." He insisted.

"So,what kind of work is it that you do? Are you part of an organization, special military group?" Greg asked wanting to start a conversation. Thean thought about it.  
"I can't tell you that now, but trust me when I say it's probably going to be soon." Thean responded as he took out some clothes from the van. "Just know that there are perks to the job." Thean informed.  
"I see. Well how much do you get paid?"  
"Depends on the tasks I'm assigned. One year I only made five thousand and the other I made two-hundred thousand." Thean said nonchalantly.  
"Holy cow! Payroll must be hard for your organization." Greg was astounded at how much money Thean could make. "And it varies, too. Must be some job, how did you apply for it?" Greg asked mostly out of Thean's sake than his own.  
"That's the thing, you don't apply to it, they seek out members. Something about them being on the look out for people who qualify. They just go up to you and ask you if you want to join, if you say yes they'll take you in, if you say no you're never heard from again." Thean said the last part in an ominous whisper.  
"What?!" Greg asked scared. Did the organization not want people knowing who they were?  
"Just kidding, they wish you a happy day and never speak to you again." Thean said as he kept looking for things in the van. Greg sighed out of relief.  
"Don't scare me like that. I almost had a heart attack. Yeesh!" Greg sighed once more. "It's not like a cult is it?" He asked out of curiosity.  
"No, you can believe in whatever and still join." Thean said. "Let's change the subject, I think I already told you too much." Thean informed.  
"Oh, ok." Greg thought about it as he pulled out a chair.

"Any girlfriends?" He asked, this caught Thean off-guard.  
"No actually. Not now at least. I dated before, but I couldn't balance them and work at the same time. So I just stuck to foolin' around in nightclubs whenever I got the chance." Thean laughed as he remembered something. "One time, I hooked up with a girl who spoke Portuguese, I didn't understand a single thing she said. It was so out of place, but she was a nice girl." He chuckled at the memory.  
"Ah, so you're a ladies man, huh?" Greg asked good naturedly.  
"That's too strong a two letter word. I just do my own thing most of the time. I don't really make it a hobby or past time, those things just sort of happen." Thean sighed. "But I do hope to meet a woman who can keep up with me. She's gotta be strong and tolerant of half the crazy stuff I do. I have Co-workers like that, but they just want to fool around all the time." Thean said as he smiled at the thought.  
"Hey don't sweat it Thean, there's a lot of fish in the sea. You just gotta know where to look." Greg gave him advice.  
Thean looked out into the sea for a moment.  
"What? You mean I should look for a girlfriend in the sea? I thought you'd give more metaphors about space. No offense." Thean joked.  
"None taken, but hey, my wife was from outer space so nothing is too far-fetched you know." Greg mentioned. "In fact, one of my songs was made specifically for Rose."  
"Really?! Which one?" Thean's interest popped up as the idea of a new song from Greg peaked his interest. Greg pulled out a CD case underneath a pile of clothes.  
"Aha! Here it is, 'Let me drive my van into you heart'" Greg held it up with enthusiasm before handing it over to Thean.  
"Whoa! This one never even made it to shelves." Thean looked at the cover art and admired the rarity of its existence.  
"Yeah, if I had more fans then it'd be an exclusive limited edition copy. Probably super expensive too." Greg thought about it. "Actually, since I don't really need it anymore, you can have it." Greg said humbly.  
"What? Greg, no. At least let me pay you something for it. I mean I have all your CD's in my tent, it would be, like, the ultimate Mr. Universe collection." Thean insisted, sounding very fanboy-ish. Thean was taking out a couple of one-hundred dollar bills, before Greg stopped him.  
"Look, Thean it's ok. You can have it. Think of it as payment for teaching Steven and keeping him safe the whole time." Greg offered.  
"Thanks, Greg. This is amazing." Thean reached his hand forward and offered to shake Gregs hand. Greg shook Theans hand.  
"No problem." They went back to taking things out of the van. "How old are you anyway Thean?" Greg asked as he thought about it.  
"Good question. I am twenty-five. I think, no one's really asked me that question ever." Thean said as he scratched the back of his head.  
"See you're not too old, you can still still find your lady." Greg said assuredly.  
"Yeah, thanks Greg." Thean appreciated.

* * *

_Homeworld_

In a yellow lighted room, there stood a figure. Said figure was standing in front of a screen, reading unknown characters in some alien code. She was grinning at a panel that showed all the gem-controlled planets. From the other side of the room, metal slide doors open to let another figure in a smaller Gem whose appearance was fragile, and showcased submissive, yet urgent body language.  
"Yellow Diamond. The ship we sent to the Planet Earth has not yet returned." This one informed.  
"Really?" The Yellow Diamond asked in a seductive, yet dangerous manner. "And who was on that ship?" She asked the same way.  
"There was Commanding Officer Jasper, Scout Technician Peridot, and Earth surviving Gem Lapis Lazuli." This Gem informed with the utmost respect and fear for the other.  
"Interesting. Not a good combination to leave alone. Tell me, have they sent a distress signal?" Yellow Diamond asked, getting impatient all of a sudden.  
"Yes, but only a small one, leaving us to believe that their ship was destroyed." She said trying not to get on her liege's bad side. Yellow Diamond pondered for a few minutes about what to order.  
"You said this planet was Earth, correct?" She asked to be sure.  
"Yes." She said.  
"I must know how that planet fared in the last millennium." She paused before making a derisive smile. "Fetch me Emerald." She ordered the smaller gem.  
"Yes you're grandeur." Said the smaller gem. A few moments later another gem walked into the room. She was of average height, her skin was a dark-hard green, she was lightly armored, and her hair was gray and cut short in dyke-style.  
"You called for me, my Queen?" Asked Emerald in a way that made her appear eager to please.  
"Yes I did. I want you to go to the Planet Earth. We have three stranded Gems there who may have information on the current state of it." Yellow Diamond instructed. "Just to be cautious, take a platoon with you, fifteen maximum. Oh, and lay waste to whatever other life you find in your short stay there, it is an organic planet after all." Yellow Diamond finalized with glee. Emerald face contorted into a sinister smile.  
"It shall be done, as you command."


	23. Chapter 23

The next day, Steven and Connie were playing at his house. The were pretending to be Gem warriors and were 'fighting' off an invading army.  
"Commander Sunstone, you're needed in the east hallway!" Steven acted as he gave Connie's 'gemsona' orders.  
"I'll be there in a jiff, general Quartz." She exclaimed in character. Both of them had their 'weapons' at the ready. Steven had a metal trash can lid, serving as his shield, and Connie used her tennis racket that Steven gave her. They turned the whole living room into a makeshift battlefield, pillows were used to block the hallways as a barricade, piles of clothes represented their fallen enemies, and they each had pans on their heads as helmets. They both took cover behind the pillows, as if they were being fired at.  
"Sunstone what should we do?" Steven acted as if the barricade didn't have much time before collapsing.  
"Well, we could make our final stand, or..." Connie stopped mid-sentence to pick up a sock. "We could throw explosives at them." And she dunked the sock over the pillows.  
"Great idea! I knew recruiting you was a good decision!" He said as he picked up another sock to throw overhead. It took them a while to blush at what he just said, but they shook it off as they kept playing. Nothing changed between them that much. They still had fun, but both of them were thinking about the kiss she gave him the previous week. Neither of them was too anxious to rush into anything, they just kept going about their friendship, with the occasional blushes here and there. They were content with how things were as it was.

The pillow barricade collapsed and their faces changed from pretend confidence, to pretend fear.  
"Retreat!" She yelled to an imaginary group of soldiers and to Steven.  
"They broke through!" Steven yelled. They both ran to the kitchen, laughing the whole way, until Steven tripped and landed on his back. "Oh no, I've been hit, tell my story Susntone...blugh." Steven closed his eyes as he pretended to die as Connie followed up with his act by holding him in her arms.  
"No you can't, we need you, I need you." She cried in play sadness, she raised her fist in the air for dramatic effect.  
Steven opened one of his eyes to see her acting. She looked down at him and they both began to laugh at the sheer silliness of their game.

All of a sudden, the warp pad began to glow and the Crystal Gems stepped out posing.  
"I'll never get tired of that." Connie said at how awesome each of the Gems looked.  
"Me neither." Steven responded.  
"Ugh, what a mess, I knew leaving him alone for two days everytime would be unsanitary." Pearl exclaimed at the mess.  
"I don't know, everything looks the same." Amethyst chipped in.  
"This isn't your room." Reminded Garnet.  
"Hey guys." Steven said as he walked to them from the kitchen, with Connie following. "Any luck on Peridot?"  
"No, but we have found places we think she might've been. We managed to find one of Amethysts whips on the ground today." Garnet informed him.  
"Oh yeah. She was still wrapped up in the whip when she left." Steven remembered.  
"We can make as many of our weapons as we want dude." Amethyst confirmed. "Heck, it's very convenient. Especially for Pearl here cuz she's ambitious or whatever." She said.  
"I'm ambidextrous Amethyst. It means I can use both hands efficiently." Pearl corrected.  
"Hi guys." Connie finally spoke up.  
"Oh Connie, what a surprise to see you...in kitchen tools?" Pearl said in confusion as she saw Connie wearing a pan over her head, and now that she saw Steven, he was doing it too. "Is this some kind of Earth Holiday?" She asked.  
"No, me and Steven were just playing around, we were Crystal Gems." She explained. "I was a sunstone." She added.  
"Aha! You're never going to survive in that, we don't rely on armor kids." Said Amethyst. "We rely on our own ability to dodge our enemies attacks, armor will just slow us down, plus we can always retreat to our gems." She said.  
"Wow!" Both Steven and Connie exclaimed.  
"I wonder what kind of things we'll be capable of." Steven said.  
"You mean Stevonnie?" Connie asked.  
"Yeah, what would our weapon and special abilities we'd be able to do." Both their eyes began to shine at the ideas of their powers.  
"You guys have a good point." Garnet stepped in. "It is possible that you can summon two weapons, or a unique that combines Stevens Shield with something that matches your personality." She said referring to Connie.  
"You mean I can have a weapon?!" Connie asked in excitement.  
"Well, no. But as a fusion you can create a single weapon from both your bodies, we don't even know if you have a weapon." Garnet admitted.  
"Then let's find out! Steven let's fuse!" She said eagerly.  
"Ok!" He went along with it. "Guys, can we have some privacy, this something we like to do alone." He told the Gems.  
This made Garnet smile, Pearl nervous, and Amethyst excited to see another fusion.  
"Ok you two, meet us inside when you finish." Garnet said as she dragged both Pearl and Amethyst into the temple.  
Steven and Connie were left alone for a moment. They began to dance playfully and freely and when they joined hands a glow surrounded them both, as they bodies became energies and collided with one another, creating a new being.

"Ah!" Stevonnie sighed. "It's good to be us again." They said. "Now off to the temple." Stevens half said as their body began to run. "Slow down, we're gonna trip." Connie's side said.  
When they got inside the temple they were met with all the Gems with their weapons drawn.  
"Since Steven already knows how we take out our weapons, Connie should be able to too, you share both the body and mind, so your memories should also be shared with consent." Garnet informed.  
"Got it." They said, to the surprise of the Gems. "We think that it's better to summon our weapons in our way." They said.

Suddenly, they closed their eyes, breathed steadily in and out. In Stevonnie's mind, both Steven and Connie were having a conversation.  
"So do you summon you weapon?" She asked him.  
"I was only able to summon it when someone i care about is in trouble, or eating ice cream but I'm a little unsure about that. I'm not really trained to summon my shield that well." He admitted. Connie suddenly had an idea.  
"That's it Steven! You can only summon it out of desperate times, but you're not trained to do it at a moment's notice. Your mind is sporadic and free. But mine's more organized and disciplined. We should be able to summon a weapon if we share your memories and mix them with my discipline." She explained.  
"You're right! You're more rational than I am. If I can manage to share my memories of summoning my shield with you, do you think you can control that experience with your mind?" He rolled with her.  
"Sure! How should we transfer memories?" She wanted to do it.  
"I think I have an idea." In their mind, they both touched foreheads, and on the outside, Stevonnie's gem began to glow.  
"They're doing it already..." Pearl said in awe.  
"They are already so close to each other, it only makes sense." Garnet said as Steven and Connie reminded her of herself.  
However, something came _flying_ into the temple and was aimed at Stevonnie. Before the Gems could stop it, it had already reached Stevonnie and caused the glow to shine even brighter. As the glow died down, Stevonnie's eyes were still closed. They felt a weight in their hand, they opened their eyes to reveal...

"No way! We did it! We actually did it!" They said in excitement. In their hand, was what appeared to be the tennis racket Steven gave to Connie. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't. Where the strings were supposed to be, Stevens shield was. In fact, the throat of the racket actually held the shield in place of the beam and the strings, and it was perfectly flat. The diameter of the shield was two feet, and the overall weight of it felt really light to Stevonnie, the edge of the shield was sharp and the grip on the handle felt comfortable. "This feels great!" Stevonnie said as they swung it around a few times to test it. "And it's perfectly balanced. We can block and slice at the same time. Wait a sec-" The handle inverted into the shield and became a whole shield altogether. "Wow! I can make a defensive weapon and a single defense. Cool." They gasped in the realization of something. "We can actually use my mom's sword and shield, or even dual wield!" The Gems were looking on in amazement. Amethyst was impressed the most.  
"Holy sh-"  
"Amtheyst!" Pearl stopped her from finishing.  
"They are more in sync than I could've over imagined." Garnet admitted. "They're perfect for each other."  
For the rest of the day, the Gems taught Stevonnie how to better control her weapon when summoning it, how to use it to block and attack. And when their body got tired Steven and Connie defused.  
"That was amazing! We are like, totally compatible!" Steven said.  
"I know, we just need to figure out how to last longer in our fusion." Connie said in even more excitement.  
"Congratulations you two." Pearl said with sincerity.  
"Yeah, that's the most progress I've ever seen a fusion make. Besides Garnet of course." Amethyst added.  
"And even I impressed by what you two accomplished today. You two are going to be extraordinary." Garnet complimented them. With that said, Steven and Connie looked at each other and smiled.

* * *

_Homeworld_

Emerald looked onto the ship that was prepared for launching that resembled a left hand, behind her were fifteen Gem warriors lined up in five by threes. At the front were gray, average height Artificial Gems with de-stabilizers, behind them were darker, and skinnier Gems with basic humanoid forms and uniforms that showed allegiance to Yellow Diamond. And at the back were crimson red, brutish looking Gems, each looking intimidating and had war paint on their faces. Each row had the same type of Gem across five times, and all looked as if they were manufactured. Emerald was satisfied with the force she was given. With a single hand gesture from Emerald, the fifteen Gems marched into the ship  
"Five Alasbasters, Five Tourmalines, and Five Hyacinths." Emerald contemplated to herself. "This should be fun." She said sadistically, as she boarded the ship behind her platoon.


	24. Chapter 24

"I knew this day was coming, but I was hoping it wasn't so soon. " Steven said dramatically.  
"Just pick one Steven." Thean said without patience. "C'mon we have other things to do." He wanted Steven to choose already.  
"But there are sixty four flavors, how can I choose if they all look sooo good?" Steven pouted.  
"Steven you're literally letting ice cream ruin the day. Just go with either of the basic three: vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry." Thean said not wanting to wait a minute longer. Today was one of those days when the Gems were away looking for Peridot, leaving Thean in charge of Steven. Thean already had the lesson of the day planned out, but the heat was intense and Steven convinced him to get ice cream at the Big Donut.  
"Thean, you can't just rush ice cream. It is a delicate process that needs to be chosen carefully." Steven explained.  
"Yeah well this process has taken a total of fifteen minutes in a hundred degree weather." Thean retorted.  
"Hah! That's nothing, last year he was having a full blown discussion with himself about the perfect dozen donuts combination, for forty five minutes." Lars chipped in.  
"They have a point Steven, you do take a long time to decide simple things." Sadie confronted him about it.  
"Well I still stand by my point that delicious food cannot be rushed." Steven reminded them.  
"That's why it's called fast food Steven." Thean said but nobody paid attention to what he said.  
Abruptly, the door opened and a man in 'hipster' clothing walked in, everyone turned around and saw the teen.  
"Kevin." Steven said with what sounded like malice. Thean stayed quiet.  
"Who's that?" Sadie asked.  
"He's some jerk who kept asking m-" He paused because he didn't want them to know about Stevonnie. "Friends of mine to dance at a party, he wouldn't take a hint that they weren't interested." Steven said remembering the events of the first time he fused with Connie and went to the party.  
"Hey, get me a smoothie will'ya?" Kevin said condescendingly toward Lars and Sadie. "And make it quick, the weather is killer today." He added, he then turned to Steven. "Hey you're one of those kids that came from that one woman." He said pointing to Steven. "I don't know what you two did, but whatever 'it' was, was disgusting." Kevin said with detestation as he recalled Stevonnie defusing into two kids.  
"Yeah well, you're the one that wouldn't take a hint that they didn't want to dance with you!" Steven retorted in anger. "You approached us. And we told you no." He said to remind him.  
"It still doesn't change the fact that it's wrong. Two genders in one body? Give me a break." He sneered down at Steven. "And where's my smoothie?" He demanded.  
"Hey don't talk to him that way." Lars said, sounding confrontational. This caught everyone else's attention, especially Steven, who thought that Sadie or Thean would've been the first ones to step in.  
"Hey, I don't pay you to mouth off to me earlobes." Kevin said as if proving a point.  
"And we don't have to serve customers that disrespect other's." Lars said making an even better point. Kevin then walked up to the counter and swung at Lars, who flinched.  
"That's what I thought." Kevin said.  
"Hey!" Thean got his attention. "Who do think you are?" Thean said, expressing his authority as the eldest one in the store. This didn't phase Kevin though.  
"Only a gift from the heavens. And I don't need to be need to be scolded by you, Cyclops." Kevin said with attitude, the whole room got quiet as nobody even thought the conversation would take that kind of a turn. Thean stayed quiet and looked at Kevin with an examining eye.  
"What are you good at?" Thean asked suddenly. This confused everyone all at once.  
"What?" Kevin asked.  
"What is the one thing you do that you think you can do than everyone else." Thean repeated. Kevin chuckled at this.  
"Club Dancing." Kevin said with pride. "Why do you ask?"  
"Cuz I'm gonna beat you at your own game." Thean said.  
"If you're so eager to get served then by all means. There's a party at Dock 15 tonight. If you you got any moves, bring them there. Just not any that are centuries old." Kevin said as he began to walk away. "I'm giving this place the lowest rating I can online." Kevin said just to have the last word. The store was quiet at what just happened.  
"What was that?" Steven asked for Lars and Sadie's sake.  
"That is called challenging someone. I'm gonna teach him respect, the only way to discipline someone like him is through humiliation." Thean explained. "Now where is that place he said?" He asked them because he didn't know where to go.

_Later that night at Dock 15_

Thean, Sadie, Lars, and Steven were all inside the abandoned, but social building.  
"So this is the place huh?" Thean asked.  
"Yeah a lot of stuff goes down here, parties, fight clubs, and shirts Buck makes occasionally." Steven explained.  
"Yeah, you should really think about joining the fight club sometime Thean." Sadie mentioned.  
"Are you kidding, he'd get slaughtered by Purple Puma, no offense Thean." Lars said.  
"None taken. Right now though, I want to prove that smug kid wrong." Thean said.  
They all wore casual, but fitting clothes for the occasion. "Now where is this kid?" Thean asked to himself.  
"I'm right here." Kevin said as he walked up to Thean, the whole party's attention was on them now. "Get ready, gramps, cuz it's Kevin time." Kevin mocked.  
"Gramps?" Thean asked incredulously. "I'm in my twenties." Thean retorted.  
"Yeah, 1920's." Kevin said before he began to dance.  
"Thean are you sure you can beat him? Can you even dance?" Sadie asked for everyone else's sake.  
"Sort of, but this kid has to learn a lesson in humiliation and respect." Thean said. Kevin was dancing to the beat of the song, which was upbeat, but slow, making his moves look almost robotic. The song that was on at the moment everyone heard of before, especially Steven, who had realized something.  
"I see what he's doing." Steven yelled, but only Thean heard him as the crowd was cheering on Kevin. "He's dancing out the slow part of the song, so that when you go you have to dance to the fast part, hoping to make it look like you can't keep up." Steven said in worry. Thean looked at Steven proudly.  
"I know, but I'm surprised you noticed." Thean said.  
"Oh well, well you taught me study a situation before reacting to it." Steven said as he scratched the back of his head.  
"And I'm glad you actually kept it mind." Thean said as he shook Stevens hair in a brotherly way. Steven smiled before the realization hit him.  
"Wait, can you even keep up with the beat, after the bass drops it gets really fast." Steven informed him.  
"Don't worry Steven. I can handle music." As soon as Thean said that, Kevin stepped away from the center of the circle if people and dared Thean to enter his 'ring'. "Watch and learn." Thean said and as soon as the base dropped. Everyone gasped at what happened next.  
Thean was dancing not only to the beat of the song, but his movements synchronized with the chorus. Every beat, every wave, every part of the tempo Thean was keeping up with. How? He was break-dancing. Thean started off with a stance that resembled a defensive one, then moved onto jumping toward Kevin, stopping a few inches away from him, before quickly bouncing backwards on his hands and doing a 1990 spin that everybody cheered at. But what impressed everyone the most was how Theans long hair was untied and his hands kept making their way around it on the floor. All that before Thean pushed himself up with one arm off the floor, spun midair and landed back on his feet and finishing it off with slamming his fist at the center of the circle, just as the song ended. Everyone was silent for a moment before they began to cheer and applaud him for his performance. Everyone except Kevin, who was silent. Him and Thean were staring each other down until Steven, Lars, and Sadie stepped in.  
"Oh! You got served Kevin!" Steven said in excitement.  
"Yeah, that's what you get!" Lars yelled on behalf of Thean.  
"You suck!" Sadie said last.  
As they all began to gang up on him Kevin gave a look of disgust before walking away.  
"And that's how it's done." Thean said out loud. He looked around as everyone else began to party again, having a good time. He saw Steven, Lars and Sadie join the mass of dancers as they all began to dance. And without hesitation, Thean jumped in to dance casually amongst the crowd. And for once, he felt himself loosen up about his surroundings.

_Hours later, outside the Temple._

After the party was over, Thean gave a sleeping Steven a piggy back ride to his house. Lars and Sadie left together back to their respective homes and Steven fell asleep walking out of Dock 15. The party had worn the boy out and Thean had to make sure he went to sleep safely. Thean went inside the temple and put Steven on his bed and tucked him in. After that, Thean made his way back out to his tent. As soon as he entered, he opened up his laptop and saw he had a message from his 'employer'.  
'It's ready.' And attached to a message was a file that had the blueprints for a new weapon. Thean looked at it with both hesitation and acceptance.  
"Perfect."


	25. Chapter 25

Steven and Thean were walking back down from the hilltop, that Ronaldo broods on, after another study session. Thean taught Steven about the concept of war and how humans were both experts and victims of it.

"My dad told me there's no such thing as a good war." Steven mentioned. Today's lesson hit him in a way that really made feel bad. Almost sad that human beings could be so violent against each other.  
"He's not wrong. But war itself doesn't necessarily have to be won through violence. The best wars are the ones where you can defeat your enemy without fighting." Thean said to cheer his up. "You'd be surprised at how civil and negotiable your enemy can be when you've cut off their food supply."  
"But what if your enemy doesn't need food or sleep?" Steven asked referring to Gems from Homeworld.  
"Then you make them bleed." Thean said as he knew about who Steven was referring to. He looked at Steven who looked sad again, to which Thean immediately replied. "Steven, war isn't the only thing that humanity is good at. Heck, if it was, we wouldn't be here. Humanity is about so much more than that. Being human is about learning to become better from the mistakes we make. And wars being some of the biggest mistakes of all the time, we naturally learn from them so as not to repeat it. But it comes at the highest of all costs. Whether it is for Queen and country, an Emperor, money, an Icon, or for protection, it all amounts to the winners and the losers to learn their mistakes and better themselves for it. That is what being Human means, to adapt and learn and make ourselves and others better for it." Thean finished his speech, which cheered Steven up more.

As they kept walking, Steven noticed that Thean carried a new sword as indicated by the new design of the scabbard, which the design of it looked like a computer chip; with lines in certain patterns, all ending with dots.  
"Is that a new weapon Thean?" He asked him.  
"I think you're becoming too observant." Thean said jokingly. "Not necessarily, it's the same double edged sword I had the first time we met, but my client...modified it." Thean said as they both kept walking.  
"Wow! So what kind of upgrades does it have?" Steven asked.  
"Well, for one, it's sharper than before and the blade was coated in a little something to give more kick to certain things." Thean explained the last part with a grin.  
"What about your armor?" Steven asked.  
"My armor is made of multiple layers of light metals, hard plastic, and strong fabrics. It's main purpose is to allow me to move as best as I can, whilst being capable of holding a bunch of other things. Like my swords, ammo, pistols, and such." He explained.  
"Cool!" Steven said in amazement. "So you're pretty much prepared for anything huh?" Steven asked.  
"That's the idea..." Thean said before looking and his face contorting into an expression that could only be described as nervous.  
"What's wrong?" Steven asked as he looked up at the sky and he too was stuck in place at what he saw.

In the sky was an all too familiar looking gem ship. This time, however, the hand was a left, and it wasn't in pointing, but rather balled up into a fist. It was slowly making it's descent into Beach City. Thean quickly took a hold of Stevens hand and began to run into the City.  
"Woah!" Steven exclaimed in surprise as he let Thean pull him, but he tried to keep up. Thean took out his phone and dialed up someone.  
"It's Thean!...Yes I can see it!...Well, tell every citizen to stay in their homes and to not come out!...I'll see what I can do...Yes he's here with me...Ok, bye." Thean hung up the phone.  
"Who was that?" Steven asked as he began to panic.  
"That was my client, you should be able to meet him later today, now that this is happening." Thean said as they kept running as they finally reached the main road that entered into Beach City.  
Suddenly, the ship opened up its balled fist and the ring, middle, and index fingers separated from the hand and launched into separate parts of the City. Thean suddenly hurled himself and Steven in an alleyway as the index finger landed into the street in front of them. Thean recieved a text. It read.  
'Everyone is inside their homes, stay safe.' It read.  
"Dad texted me, he said he's hiding in the carwash." Steven told him.  
"Good tell him to remain there until he gets a different message." Thean said as Steven quickly sent his dad the message. They waited for what was going to happen next.

Suddenly the finger opened up a door compartment, and from it five gray looking gems stepped out, they all looked the same and their gems were all in their back. All of them carried Gem destabilizers. They all surveyed the area. As Steven looked at them he saw that they looked "Stay quiet, I'll deal with this." Thean said as he moved ahead. "Stay here."

As the Gems stepped out, they were all the same height as him and they lacked of them talked into its wrist. As Thean snuck closer he could hear.  
"Alabaster A-E landed safely. No signs of living organisms, only strange looking formations on the landscape. Too organized." One of them said. Thean could hear another voice coming from the wrist bit could not make out what they were saying. "Search and Destroy? Yes Ma'm." She said as she turned off the communication device in her wrist. "We have orders to search and destroy." She told the rest of them. She said as they began to spread out.  
Thean reacted immediately and reached into one of his pouches and threw several smoke pellets in their general directions. This caused all the Alabasters to become disoriented, and unable to see each other anymore because of the heavy smoke.  
"Alabasters, roll call! A!" One said and the rest followed.  
"B"  
"C"  
"D"  
"E-" Her roll call was cut short as a shot went off. As soon as it did, the rest of the Alabasters were on higher alert.  
"What was that? We lost E!" One yelled out.  
"Be on your guard! Records suggest that Humans only have stones and soft metals for weapons!" Another yelled out.  
"Funny," Thean said, albeit his voice sounding very ominous and suspenseful, but they couldn't tell where it was coming from. "You seem to think that humans are weak." Another gun shot was heard.  
"We lost B!" One yelled in fright.  
"Where is that voice coming from?!" Another Alabaster yelled. "Find it!" She commanded. "Their weapons should be inferior so don't hold back." She said trying to convince herself.  
"Really? Let me show you how dangerous human weapons can be." Thean said as a click could be heard. "Like the chromium pistol, with mercury tipped Spitzer bullets. You probably don't know what that means. So let me put it to you this way. If you don't want to retreat into your Gems, tell me how many of you are there?" Thean asked threateningly, from nowhere as far as they could tell.  
"Don't answer that!" Alabaster A yelled as she seemed to be in command. Another shot was heard.  
"We lost C! A what do we do?!" Asked D in terror.  
"Tell me how many of you are there now!" Thean commanded, causing the remaining Gems to become even more scared of him.  
"I'm going to contact-" A was going to say until another shot was heard.  
D was now alone as she felt, but also knew, she was the last one in her group. She held onto her destabilizer for comfort.  
"I will ask one last time." Thean's voice returned to normal as there was only Alabaster D left. D cracked under fear as she dropped her destabilizer.  
"There were 16 of us when we landed, we separated into groups of three, with one group being led by our Commanding Officer. There are only twelve of us left." She said quickly as she complied with Thean.  
"Thank you, but you counted wrong." Thean said as his voice was now dangerously closer to Alabaster D. Once the smoke cleared out, she saw that Thean was in front of her, and she was at point blank gun-point. "There's only eleven now." Thean said as he pulled the trigger and the Gem instantly poofed. Once he was done with them Steven came out but from watching and stopped a short distance away from him.  
"Thean! What did you do?! She surrendered! You didn't have to do that!" Steven yelled at Thean as he was mad at him for shooting the last one.  
"Steven, they have orders to Search and Destroy, we can't afford to take the risk of letting one free whilst there are still citizens." Thean said with authority that caused Steven to calm down.  
"But...she was scared." Steven said.  
"She should've been." Thean said in frustration of the actions he had to take. "Bubble them up, we can't afford to let them recreate their forms, especially out in the open, there should be five." Thean said as he reloaded his Spitzer Pistol.  
"Oh! Right." Steven said as he remembered that Gems don't necessarily die, they just retreat into their Gems when damaged too much. "Sorry about that, Thean." Steven said as he bubbled up all the Alabasters.  
"Don't apologize, I did what had to be done." He said as Steven bubbled up the last of the Alabasters. "Do you have the warp whistle?" Thean asked him. Steven's face dropped in horror.  
"The warp whistle! I left it back at the house!" He yelled in panic.  
"What?!" Thean retorted as he ran his hands through his hair. "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" He took a few deep breathes.  
"I'm sorry!" Steven apologized.  
"The one time we need it and-hmm!" Thean groaned in frustration. "Ok, new plan. I take them out, and you bubble them up, and we get to the house and find the warp whistle. Got it?" Thean asked.  
"Right." Steven complied and they both made their way to where they one of the fingers land.

The next ship they encountered, was by the Funland Amusement park, it crashed directly onto the Ferris wheel, which was now broken, thankfully, no one was in it.  
The next group of Gems were the Tourmalines. As Steven and Thean looked at them, they noticed that they all looked the same, but what really shocked them was how so similar to Pearl they were, the only differences were the outfits and color schemes, which were red and green.  
"Where do you think those three are?" One of them asked the other. Upon closer inspection, Thean and Steven saw that they all had the same weapons too, hatchets.  
"Maybe they were taken prisoner by the Crystal Gems." One of them said. "Afterall, they managed to crash land the ship back to this exact location." She said.

Thean looked at Steven and signaled him to stay in place. Thean quietly snuck behind several of the attractions of the park to escape the line of sight of the Gems. He took his time listening in on what they had to say as well as turn on his wrist recorder.

"So besides destroying any organic beings, do you think we were sent here to retrieve them and wipe out the Crystal Gems or what?" One of them asked the other. As far as Thean could tell, they split up around the park into two groups of two and one being alone.  
"Who cares, you know Yellow Diamond doesn't condone failure. Hell, she probably wants us to retrieve them so she could punish them herself." The other explained.  
"You're right. After failing to reactivate the Kindergarten, crashing the ship, and disobeying orders i'd say those three are in for it." The first one said. "Our leader can be a bit much."  
_Watch your language, I can send that to Yellow Diamond and she will have your Gem.  
_A voice was heard from their wrist device.  
"Apologies Emerald." They both said in synchronized fear. Thean took this time to make his way behind them. As soon as he got close, he used one swing of his Jambiya knife to cut the back of their necks, causing them both to poof. He silently signaled Steven to bubble them up. He quickly made his way to the next Tourmaline, the one that was alone and jabbed his knife at her back. As Steven saw that it reminded him too much of when Holo-Pearl stabbed Pearl from behind. He looked away before she poofed. He quickly bubbled her up as quickly and pushed the memory in the back of his mind. The last two were standing alone under a ride that had a cart just above them. Thean saw this as a perfect opportunity and the piece of metal that connected the entire ride to the cart. The cart was very heavy and it appeared to have crushed both Gems under its weight and a poof was heard underneath them. As Thean made his way to them he told Steven to come out and bubble them.  
"Ok, that noise should not have been heard by the last six Gems." Thean said as Steven bubbled up one of the Gems. "No we just need to-" He was cut short as one of them hadn't poofed, but had its legs under the cart, used its Gem hatched and sliced it at Thean's abdomen. "Augh!" He yelled as it cut through the fabric and skin.  
"Thean!" Steven cried in worry for Thean. Thean adjusted himself, and, with anger, stepped on her face as hard as he could and it caused her to poof. "Ah!" He grunted in pain, he looked over his wound and saw it was a bloody six inch gash. He quickly took a hold of it to prevent it from bleeding.  
"Thean, are you alright?" Steven asked in concern and quickly licked his hand. "I can heal you." He offered.  
"No, we gotta finish this first." Thean said as he grabbed what looked like a roll of duct tape, ripped a sheet, and placed it over the wound. "Duct band aid. Keeps the blood in, and pressure on it to prevent it from flowing out." Thean explained. "You can heal me later." He said as he pushed himself up.

The Hyacinths and Emerald were on the beach shore, just on the side of the temple, but not aware of them. Rather than walking across the shoreline, Thean insisted that him and Steven should go along the edge of the hill.  
"Why should we?" Steven asked.  
"Look." Thean said as he pointed Steven down to where they were. Steven saw that there were five Jasper looking gems, they all had their gems on their shoulders and were crimson red. With them was a shorter, but average height Gem that had a striking resemblance to Peridot, only she looked a lot more intimidating.  
"Ok, we should stay far away from them." Steven admitted as he remembered how strong Jasper was, and now there were five that looked like her.

"It has been more than ten minutes and they still haven't reported back." Emerald said.  
"Maybe they found some meat that they are doing away with right now." One of the Hyacinths said.  
"If they were, they would have told me." Emerald said with short patience. "Otherwise I would have cracked their gems." She said with a serious tone.

"We can't let them find the warp pad." Steven said. "They can reactivate the ones that connect to other planets." Steven said.  
"We won't, I promise. Stop." Thean promised as he stopped at a certain spot.  
"What's wrong?" Steven asked.  
"I found it." Thean said as he dug out a box. Inside was the parts for a powerful looking rifle.  
"What is that?" Steven said. "Wait, is that what you had the night you saved us from the monster fusion?' Steven asked as he remembered.  
"Yes, this is my Armor Piercing Rifle. With Seven inch rounds. This is solely custom made for me and the mission." Thean said as he began to put the pieces together, but found out he was missing a piece. "I am going to need your help here." Thean admitted.  
"With what?" Steven asked.  
"This thing makes a lot of noise, it sounds like thunder without its silencer. The problem is, I misplaced the silencer at my tent." As they looked down, they saw that the Gems stopped to examine Thean's tent. "I am going to fire this at them. I can probably take three of them out before they notice us, once they do, they'll knew where we are, and by then they'll reach us. I'll have time to shoot one more, so by the time that the final two reach us, I want you to summon your bubble around us. Got it." Thean explained.  
"Got it." Steven said. Thean put his eye to the scope of his rifle and aimed, but he quickly grabbed the noise cancelling headphones and passed them to Steven.  
"Here, this gun sounds really loud up close, It'll hurt your young ears." Thean said as Steven put them on.  
"Thanks Thean." Steven said. Knowing he couldn't hear anything at this point, Thean just gave him the thumbs up, and went back to aiming at the Gems.

"Will you stop examining that thing." Emerald commanded. "It is abandoned, there is no one inside." She said as the Hyacinth's kept knocking on Thean's tent.  
"Well, we could always just destroy i-awk!" The Hyacinth was interrupted as she was shot in the back of the neck and poofed. There was a loud, thundering noise.  
"What was tha-augh!" She was cut short as the bullet hit her back and cause her to poof. Another noise came after that.  
"Where is that coming from?!" Emerald yelled as she saw that they were being attacked. She noticed that before the Hyacinths poofed, they were pushed to one side, so she figured that they must have been hit from the opposite side by something else.  
"It's coming from up there?!" A Hyacinth said as she pointed at the edge of the cliff where Steven and Thean were before she was shot and poofed.  
"There! Get them!" Emerald commanded to the remaining Hyacinths. And much like Amethyst and Jasper, they curled up into balls and spin dashed upward the cliff, toward Steven and Thean.

Thean was aiming his next shot carefully, he fired, as another loud shot went off, and managed to shoot one of the Hyacinths that was spinning. She poofed instantly. The last Hyacinth was only a few feet away from them hitting them. Thean put his rifle down and was about to tell Steven to summon his bubble when, to his surprise, Steven already did. Thean was proud of Steven for acting without an order. But that moment was broken when the spin dash of the Hyacinth collided with Steven's bubble. Both were sent backwards, with the Hyacinth falling back to where she was before she spin-dashed. As soon as the bubble was pushed back and landed, it popped, causing both Thean and Steven to land on their backs. Thean pushed himself up, ran toward the edge of the cliff where the Hyacinth was coming up from, and jumped. Steven was surprised about this and followed Thean, but rather than jump, he slid down the cliff side, carefully, so as not to fall.

As Thean was in midair, he pulled out his modified sword from its scabbard to reveal that just underneath the cross-guard, on the handle, was a button. The blade was encrypted with several lines along the fuller that reached to the tip. Thean positioned himself so that he would be able to thrust the blade into the Hyacinth with maximum damage. As the Hyacinth got up, it saw that Thean was aiming in her direction, she tried to get up, but before she could, Thean had already landed, blade-first, into Hyacinth. Thean landed safely on her, but the blade didn't go all the way through to her, Thean pushed the button on the sword and it lighted up with green energy, to the horror of the Hyacinth. She could feel the zap of the blade, but as soon as it stopped, she could feel herself being broken down, and her limbs melt from her torso, all before ultimately poofing.

"It works." Thean said as he was only a few feet away from an impressed Emerald.  
"Interesting. A human capable of beating Gems. Now you are something Yellow Diamond needs to see." She said as she licked her lower lip in a dangerous manner.  
"Maybe she should come see me." Thean replied.  
"Don't get too haughty human." She said as she eyed him from head to toe. She was impressed with what she saw. "I guess you're the reason my platoon hasn't responded." She said. Thean nodded. She noticed the tape covered wound on his abdomen. "At least I know they got a hit on you." She said in a coy manner.  
"Well, I got her back so whatever." Thean said. As they both stared one another down, Steven finally reached the bottom.  
"Thean, are you ok?" He asked.  
"I'm fine." Thean responded. "Bubble them up." He instructed. "And get the Warp Whistle." He reminded.  
Steven quickly bubbled up the Hyacinth stones and made his way to the temple. Emerald narrowed her eyes at Steven and began to make her way towards him.  
"Hey!" Thean caught her attention. "He is not your concern right now. I am." Thean said as he held out his new sword. Emerald gave him her undivided attention.  
"Fine, but do you really think that you can take me on?" She asked sarcastically. "And survive?" She added as she got in a defensive stance. "

She dashed at him at blinding speed, and threw the first punch at Thean. Thean barely had enough time to comprehend her speed, but managed to avoid the hit and quickly thrust his sword at her as fast as he could, while pressing the button on it. Emerald could hear a buzzing sound coming from the sound in an all to familiar manner. She back flipped to avoid Theans attack with relative ease and landed silently against the sand. Thean couldn't believe how fast she was, she closed the two meter distance between them in a second and avoided his attack.

"So," She began. "Where did you get that Gem destabilizer?" She more told him than asked him. Thean was shocked at how nonchalantly she wanted to talk in their fight. He decided that anything to give Steven more time to find the Warp Whistle was fine. So he indulged her.  
"The last ship you sent that crashed back to earth had three Gems on it didn't it?" He said. Emerald nodded to confirm it. "When it crashed a certain group retrieved some of the remains, and found this rather fascinating tool." He explained. "So they examined it and applied it to an Earth weapon. From what we found out, this type of energy can force Gems to retreat into their...Gems." He said as weird as it sounded.  
"So you're using our technology against us? Clever." Emerald admitted. "But what makes you think that you'll be able to hit me with it?" She asked him with a sadistic smile.  
"I don't know." Thean answered. "But I will try!" He yelled as he ran at her as fast he could, with both his sword and knife ready to strike.

* * *

Steven was looking desperately for the Warp Whistle. He literally flipped everything he thought might have had hidden the whistle.  
"Where is it? Where is it?" He kept repeating. He rummaged through his bed to see if it was hidden somewhere in the covers. "I know it's in the house. But where?" He kept looking through the house in several places.

* * *

Emerald was sidestepping every single attack Thean threw at her with ease. Thean put as much speed and power behind every slice and thrust. He knew he had very little chance to hit her, but he kept trying nonetheless.  
"You know, you are mighty slow. Here I thought that it took a soldier to take down my platoon. But I guess that you are just as useless as every other bag of flesh I've encountered." She said as she sidestepped one of his downward cuts, with his back turned to her, she shoved him forward playfully. Thean tripped forward, he spit out sand that got in his sand. He got up and faced her with an angry look. "Oh, did I strike a nerve? You must have taken that bag of flesh to heart, i'm guessi-" Thean swung his sword once again. She dodged and smacked him on his chin, in a way that made it feel like she scolded him rather than intending to hurt him. "You are very rude." She said smacked him again. This caused Thean to become enraged, this reminded him too much of the mocking he endured in his reservation when it was taken over.  
"Don't you mock me!" Thean yelled, he hated being treated so lowly. He dropped his knife and whipped out his pistol and fired. Emerald was already on the move when he dropped his knife. She managed to move quickly enough to push Theans arm upwards and caused him to miss. "Wha-" Before he could finish being surprised, Emerald punched him to the side of his face hard enough to force him to hit the ground and he dropped all of his weapons.  
"Waste of flesh. Trying to surprise me." She said. Thean groaned from where he lied. Emerald grabbed him by his collar. "Let's see what kind of things lie in that head of yours." She said as, with her other hand, was placed on Thean's forehead. Before she did, Thean noticed that her gem was on her hand. As her hand made contact with Thean's forehead, she began to see all of his dark memories. Emerald was very pleased with what she was seeing. Thean could feel her invading his mind, and with whatever resistance he had left in his body, tried to get her off of him.  
"Get out of my head!" He said as he punched her in the face. Emerald was surprised at the force his hit delivered, it was enough to make her let go of him. Thean, in honesty, hurt himself more than her, as her skin was significantly harder than humans. He quickly stood up and grabbed his sword from the ground. And charged at her with ferocity.

* * *

"It must be around here somewhere." Steven said to himself. Suddenly, he noticed a pile of clothes that he hadn't noticed yet. "Could it be..." He quickly looked at through it and he miraculously found the whistle. "Yes!" Steven yelled in excitement as he blew it as hard as he could.

* * *

Thean was panting heavily and tiredly. He didn't know how long he could keep up with her. He was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Everything he tried to do, only ended up with her beating him to it. She was toying with him, that much he knew.  
"What are you tired already, I haven't even summoned a weapon." She mocked. He hated being mocked in that manner, as if she thought herself mightier than him, much like others in his past. He knew that his emotions wouldn't give him any advantage whatsoever in this fight. So he figured if he couldn't hurt her, he could just annoy her.  
"You really are stupid." He said randomly. This confused her.  
"Why do you say that if you're the one losing?" She asked, trying to keep her dominating, mocking attitude.  
"You actually stayed when I told you that I was your concern. You could've stopped that kid from calling the rest o the Crystal Gems." Thean said, his turn to mock her. Emerald quickly realized that she had fallen into his trap and now lost the chance of completing the mission. "Instead, you chose to toy with me.  
This angered Emerald and she quickly jabbed him in his rib, a crack could be heard. "Augh! Dangit! There goes a rib." He said. "  
"Are you even taking this seriously anymore?" Emerald spat out as she lost her satisfaction of watching her pray loose control of emotions. "I could kill you, you know?" She said, trying to scare him. She then kneed him in the gut, which caused the wind in him to be knocked out. He was trying to breathe it back in.  
"So? *gasp*It wouldn't fix your failure*gasp*And from what I heard, Yellow Diamond doesn't tolerate failure." Thean said.

He figured that he would've lost the fight regardless, so he switched tactics to stalling her. He was then confused at what was standing behind her. "By the way, why is there a pink lion behind you?" He asked. Emerald was equally as confused as he was when she turned around. Once she did, Lion was facing her, with his eyes glowing an ominous white, and he let out a powerful roar that pushed her back. Emerald was shocked at what just happened. Thean looked up at Lion as if he were a hallucination from being hit too many times.

"What the fu-"  
"We're here!" Garnet yelled as her, Pearl, and Amethyst landed in between Thean and Emerald. "You have done enough Thean, thank you." She thanked him. Steven came running.  
"I did it Thean." He said with enthusiasm.  
"No problem." He said as he laid his head down for a second.

The Crystal Gems were now facing Emerald.  
"Who are you?!" Pearl asked first.  
"It appears that the mission was a failure." Emerald said to herself. "I am Emerald, personal enforcer of Yellow Diamond and whatnot, here to retrieve the three Gems that came here before us." She explained. "I don't supposed you have any of them with you?" She asked.  
"We don't have them." Amethyst said.  
"We can't let her escape back to Homeworld." Pearl told Garnet.  
"And we won't." Garnet said.  
"Funny that you said that, you see," Emerald said as she pressed a button on her wrist. "We have been making significant progress with our technology on Homeworld. So much so, that warp pads are now a thing of the past." She explained as all of the fingers that landed on Beach City earlier were now returning to the ship. Steven felt the bubbled up Gems disappear and fly back to the ship. "Every Gem that leaves Homeworld is now implanted with devices that call them back to a certain place, theirs being the ship, and that's not all." She said as she began to glow, the rest of them prepared themselves for whatever she would do. But to their surprise she disappeared in a flash. They all looked back at the ship who was ascending into the atmosphere. "Ships can now teleport back to Homeworld. We will be back, and we will reconquer this planet!" Emerald's voice could be heard from the ship.

Suddenly, a portal engulfed the ship and caused it to disappear. Everyone looked up at where the ship used to be. The Crystal Gems looked terrified at what she said.  
"Oh no." Steven said.  
"No, not again." Pearl began as she collapsed and held the side of her head. "We can't do this again." She began to panic.  
"It's over, they're gonna come back, and we could barely stand up to them the first time." Amethyst said as she began to worry and hold her hair.  
"What will we do?" Garnet asked in fear.  
"Perhaps," Thean said as he sat up, completely devoid of any worry. "I can help out."

* * *

_And that concludes my first story, yes I ended it on a cliffhanger, however, it will continue sometime during the rest of the summer. Thank you all so much for keeping up with the story, thank you all for the amazing reviews, everyone who followed and favorited it. Just know that there is a lot more coming your way. In the meantime, i don't know, review it again, PM me, make fanart of it, whatevs. Until next time. Maybe after the StevenBomb..._


	26. Sneak Peak

Emerald had successfully made it back to Homeworld. The ship had been teleported to a facility that housed similar and different ships. Emerald exited the ship and was greeted by another Gem.  
"Greetings Emerald, would you like a-" She began but Emerald pushed her to the side.  
"Make sure those Gems are disciplined for their failure!" She commanded her.  
"Yes Ma'm." The other Gem replied in fear as she picked up the Gems from the ship.  
Emerald made her way to a building that housed several warp pads leading to different parts of Homeworld. She looked around and saw room that above the doorway read: Special Authorization Only. She was confronted by security, only for them to leave as soon as they realized who she was. She stepped on a warp pad that took her directly to where Yellow Diamond was. She warped to Yellow Diamonds throne, and she was approached by several of the elite guards.  
"State your purpose." One of them commanded.  
"I have news regarding a mission. Now get out of my way." She said as she shoved through to meet with her Queen.  
Yellow Diamond sat upon a throne, with several steps leading up to her.  
"Emerald, you have returned. I suppose the mission was a success." She asked Emerald. Emerald stopped and bowed to her Monarch.  
"I regret to inform you that we did not retrieve the three Gems." She said. Yellow Diamond frowned.  
"So tell me why I should keep you alive if you failed me." She gave Emerald the chance to explain herself, and possibly avoid getting her gem cracked.  
"Because I have information that is valuable." Emerald said as she looked up at the Queen Gem. This seemed to interest Yellow Diamond regarding any report about Earth. To be honest, Emerald knew from the start that the mission was never about retrieving the Gems that were stranded on Earth, but to simply see how the planet was doing since their abandonment.  
"Go on." Yellow Diamond ordered.  
"When we got to the original coordinates of where Jasper, Peridot, and Lapis were, we all seperated into three groups of five. With me personally leading one of them. However, the platoon I took was decimated by a single human." Emerald pause to see the reaction on Yellow Diamond. She gave a look of interest at the thought of an organic lifeform being able to take out a Gem. "However, I have reason to believe that they were taken down stealthily, as when I was approached by the one who had done it could hardly touch me in close combat." Emerald waited for any questions Yellow Diamond might have had.  
"So in the open it posed no threat?" She asked.  
"No, but it did have a modified sword that imitated the use of a Gem destabilizer. It stated that it got the technology from when Peridot's ship crashed on Earth. However, what made me retreat was that the Crystal Gems were still alive." Emerald informed. Yellow Diamond's eyes shot up to Emerald's surprise she quickly stood up..  
"Everyone get out NOW!" She demanded as everyone obeyed in fear. "You!" She pointed at Emerald, who had never seen her queen in such a state of panic or anger. "Stay here."  
"You better not be lying to me." Yellow Diamond demanded.  
"I am not, but there were three Gems. Rose Quartz was nowhere nearby. And they had a quadruped creature that could push me with a roar." She said referring to Lion.  
"So then there were only three Gems on that primitive rock planet?" She asked for confirmation.  
"Yes." Emerald confirmed. Yellow Diamond pondered.  
"We have to destroy them. The Crystal Gems. And retake that planet. It will be mine again." She said with hatred and determination. "Rose Quartz is no longer there and now only humans and few Gems remain." Yellow Diamond looked at Emerald. "Prepare our sector for war." She commanded. "And inform my sisters of this." She said.  
"Yes Ma'm." Emerald said and walked out of the throne room.

_Back on Earth._

The Gems were all waiting for Thean's 'employer' to arrive at the Beach. When the Gems began to panic, Thean told them to calm down and told them that everything will be explained as soon as soon as his 'employer' got there. Amethyst sighed heavily.  
"Where is this guy?! The more we wait here, the more we do nothing." She said in anxiously.  
"Amethyst, calm down." Garnet said.  
"She's right Garnet, we don't even know what we're up against. There were more this time and if it weren't for Steven bubbling up their Gems Beach City wouldn't have stood a chance." Pearl exclaimed. Steven heard this and looked at Thean who was laying on the sand with his eyes closed. Steven was about to say that Thean helped out a lot, but Thean spoke up first.  
"Will you guys be quiet! He'll be here soon. I don't get why you are all worrying about time here. I'm not immortal and you don't see me fussing about it. Just be patient." He said as he stayed in the same position the whole time. "It's gonna be fine." He said stoically. The Gems knew he had a point, for a mortal who could die of age he wasn't worried. Before they could say anything, Steven pointed at a black van.  
"Is that him?" He asked. Thean sat up and looked at the van.  
"Should be." He said casually and stood up before dusting off any sand he had on his suit. The van stopped a few meters away from them. There as only one man in inside on the drivers seat.  
The lights of the van turned off and the man got out. Steven was the first one to immediately recognize the man, but he couldn't say anything because of how shocked him and everyone else was. Everyone except for Thean. Thean approached the man with his hand out. However, instead of shaking hands, both men shook by their forearms.  
"Thean." The man said with respect.  
"Mayor Dewey." Thean said equally. They both let go of each other's forearms as Bill gestured them to get in the van.  
"Ladies, I believe I have some explaining to do."

* * *

_The Sneak Preview to the sequel of Human Tutor. **Samaritans.** I am already working on the first chapter. So keep a look out for it sometime during the weekend. It is going to change everything. And I hope you all are enjoying the StevenBomb 2.0. If you have any questions feel free to PM me._


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